Hong Kong government plans held up after Legislative Council fails to vote
Money requests will have to wait until the next legislative term
The Legislative Council’s Finance Committee failed to vote on five government funding proposals by the end of its final meeting on Tuesday, despite the administration’s last-ditch effort to speed things up by changing the agenda.
The committee met for eight hours over four sessions in an attempt to scrutinise all 12 government funding proposals before the current Legco term ends.
Among the items legislators failed to vote on were a HK$48.6 million proposal to build musical fountains at Kwun Tong Promenade and the creation of a chief engineer post to monitor the progress of the Hong Kong section of the express rail link that connects the city with Guangzhou.
The plans will be delayed until the next legislative year.
A backlog built up during a year of filibustering over controversial money requests. In March, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor met lawmakers to rearrange Legco’s agenda to quicken legislative business by prioritising uncontroversial items.