Legco committee chief plans attack on delaying tactics after length of debates doubles

Pan-democrat decries ‘declaration of war’ and vows to oppose Chan Kin-por’s changes

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Legco Finance Committee chairman Chan Kin-por (right), with his deputy Michael Tien Puk-sun. Chan said he was looking at several measures to speed up proceedings at the committee’s meetings. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 8:00pm, 27 Jul 2017Updated: 10:59pm, 27 Jul 2017

The committee that approves or denies the government’s spending plans has doubled the amount of time it spends looking at each funding request, its chairman has said, blaming filibustering and declaring his resolve to curb that by tightening the rules.

Chan Kin-por said the average time lawmakers on the Legislative Council Finance Committee spent on each item increased from two hours in the 2015-16 session to 4.2 hours in the last one. Items took only 1.8 hours each to pass on average in the four sessions from 2012 to 2016.

In 123 hours of deliberation over the past year, the committee passed 29 proposals.

In the last Finance Committee meeting earlier this month, the pan-democrats dragged out a debate for seven hours in protest against the disqualification of four of their colleagues for improper oath-taking.

Chan admitted some officials’ attempts to address lawmakers’ concerns about funding requests had been unsatisfactory, but attributed the problem more to filibustering pan-democrats.

“Finance Committee is supposed to be a place for lawmakers to scrutinise funding requests instead of debating policies or venting emotions,” Chan said.

Legco committee chief plans attack on delaying tactics after length of debates doubles

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Pan-democrat decries ‘declaration of war’ and vows to oppose Chan Kin-por’s changes

Pan-democrat decries ‘declaration of war’ and vows to oppose Chan Kin-por’s changes