Trio threaten to quit task force if Hong Kong government refuses to overhaul ‘problematic’ funding system for NGOs

Three members of a task force looking into funding for social welfare organisations threatened to quit the official panel should the government refuse to promise a complete overhaul of the existing system, which they slammed as problematic.

The calls made by Hong Kong Social Workers’ General Union internal vice-president Cheung Chi-wai and pro-democracy lawmakers Shiu Ka-chun and Dr Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung echoed the results of a recent study in which 95 per cent of social workers and service users polled agreed that the current subsidy system required thorough reform.

Seven in 10 respondents polled by the newly established Social Welfare Reform United Front also found the task force – established earlier this year – to be unrepresentative, and demanded more voices from frontline workers and service users be included.

The issue in question is the lump sum grant system rolled out in 2001, which provides a one-off subsidy to NGOs covering part of the salary and employee welfare expenditure and other administrative charges that the groups cannot not fully afford through their service fee income.

Critics have slammed the system, which was supposed to give the organisations more flexibility, saying it had left behind a range of problems over the past decade, compromising service quality.

Social worker Irving Baleros, a member of the alliance, criticised the government for limiting the scope of work of the task force in its first meeting last month by suggesting it would seek only to optimise the system.

“The social welfare sector has made clear its dissatisfaction with the lump sum grant over the years,” Baleros said. “The effort [to solve the problem] would be in vain if only some wishy-washy remedies are carried out instead of an overhaul.”