Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah will today deliver his last budget under the Donald Tsang Yam-kuen administration. As a result of the vibrant stock market last year, a red-hot property market that has prompted a huge rise in stamp duty revenue, as well as increased land sales, analysts expect a budget surplus of over HK$50 billion, even though the government had forecast a deficit of HK$8.5 billion last March.
With so much money in the coffers, public attention will focus on whether the government can effectively allocate the windfall to benefit the community at large.
The good news is that the finance chief is expected to allocate HK$15billion for the redevelopment of two ageing public hospitals - Queen Mary Hospital, which was founded in 1937, and the century-old Kwong Wah Hospital. Such a move would no doubt bring immense benefits to the community.
The staff at both hospitals have repeatedly pleaded with the government to finalise redevelopment plans. Donald Tsang made no mention of the hospitals' fate in his policy address last October. This may have been because of issues arising from the annual resource allocation exercise conducted by the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau.
Funding allocations are discussed and approved at these meetings, which are chaired by the permanent secretary of the Treasury and assisted by a number of senior civil servants. Its function is to review and process department funding requests according to financial management and processing procedures. The review looks at whether the relevant department really needs extra funding or whether it could reallocate its existing budget. This screening is important as it prevents unnecessary spending.
But, in recent years, the role of the resource allocation exercise seems to have changed for the worse. It has expanded beyond its mandate and put up unnecessary hurdles to block funding requests. It tends to scrutinise requests beyond the mandatory parameters of proper financial management, by questioning the urgency of some policy changes and their priorities. This unco-operative attitude has created a rather perverse bureaucratic culture.
As a result, many civil servants believe they are better off not rocking the boat and prefer to do nothing.
