To stimulate debate on this issue the Foundation organized a one-day seminar, Government in Evolution in March.

The Government itself has initiated a consultation exercise on district organizations calling for the submission of comments by the end of July. Therefore, it seems appropriate for this article to focus on this part of our system of government and we will address other areas over the coming months.

The Foundation is of the view that the Government is approaching this review of local government from too narrow a perspective. We believe the opportunity should be taken to examine the role of district organizations from first principles and to seek to identify a model of true local government that would be suitable for operation in Hong Kong.

The Foundation believes that district organizations, or local government bodies as we would prefer to see them evolve into, are as important a part of our governmental fabric as other bodies such as the Legislative Council.

The Government's Review of District Organizations consultation paper focused on the Municipal Councils and District Boards. It failed to make mention of the future role of other district level organizations such as the Mutual Aid Committees, Owners Corporations, Area Committees and District Management Committees. As Dr Sonny Lo pointed out in the paper he presented at the Government in Evolution Seminar, since these organizations already play a part in our system of district administration, their roles also need to be re-evaluated as a part of any comprehensive review of district bodies.

In our response to the Review of District Organizations consultation paper, the Foundation recommends that the Government takes time to thoroughly investigate the question of district organization structure, including researching into systems of local government in other jurisdictions, before it proceeds any further.

Abolish and consolidate

Abolish the two Municipal Councils and consolidate the 18 District Boards into a new Area Council organization of between 5 to 10 Councils that would undertake real local government functions.

Area Councils would take on responsibility, within the Government's policy framework and financial resources approved by the Legislative Council, for services such as environmental hygiene, recreation and culture, environment, housing, primary and secondary education, development planning and control, health and social services.

Area Councils should consist of between 25 to 30 members, depending on area size. With fewer members, Councils should be able to work more efficiently and the pool of talent be less diluted.

We envisage the abolition of appointed members, but in recognition of the value of expert opinion to the Councils' deliberations, propose recognized experts be co-opted to relevant Council sub-committees.

Improve system of management and monitoring

A system of functional sub-committees should be established for each Area Council to enable them to carry out their functions more effectively.

Recent experience, such as the problems with the Hong Kong Stadium and the new Urban Council Library design process have shown an urgent requirement for a radical overhaul of the supporting district organization management structures and the implementation of performance management and monitoring programmes.

Also, there has been evidence from the operation of the Municipal Councils that more objective and critical judgement needs to be exercised in the spending of public funds, so appropriate criteria and management systems should be introduced to improve this area of decision making.

A day's pay for a day's work

With the increased responsibilities it is proposed that the new Area Councils assume, the level of remuneration of the Council members should be increased substantially compared with that of the Provisional District Board members and to enable them to devote a greater amount of time to their duties.

We also recommend that experts co-opted to the sub-committees be appropriately remunerated.

Improved services through competition

While centralization is often equated with the maximization of efficiency, this can equally well and possibly even better be achieved through competition. By empowering a number of Area Councils to provide selected services, a competitive environment can be established, whereby Councils that provide a better quality of service will serve as benchmarks. This will exert pressure on Councils providing services less efficiently to upgrade in the face of the threat of failure of their councillors to secure re-election by dissatisfied voters.

Conclusion

Although Hong Kong is small both geographically and in population, we have grown into a complex and sophisticated society and therefore require a system of government that is relevant to our situation. In our view, a two-tier system comprising a centralized element of Executive, Civil Service and Legislative Council and a proper single tier local government element, to which responsibility and accountability for providing selected services has been devolved, would best suit our needs.

George Cautherley, Vice Chairman