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Amy Nip

A public agency providing sports training and support to elite athletes has been upbraided by the government's audit watchdog for lacking an internal mechanism of checks and balances.
The Sports Institute's haphazard system for directors to declare their interests and absence of a corporate governance manual was also criticised in the Audit Commission's latest report, released yesterday.
A corporate governance manual was needed, it said, in view of poor meeting attendance among the institute's directors in the four years to 2013/14.
"In nominating directors for reappointment, the Home Affairs Bureau did not seem to have taken into account their attendance rates in board or committee meetings," the report reviewing public-sector performance and accountability said.
In its investigation into the government-run institute, the commission found annual expenditure rose to HK$430 million in 2014/15 from HK$160 million in 2005/06.
Yet, the institute had not set up any internal audit function or committee to control its finances and administration better since its launch in 2004, the report said.
It submitted to the government statements of management accounts only every two months instead of once a month, and failed to file yearly reports on programme implementations over the past four years.
Following the auditors' request, the institute gave the bureau the reports from 2010/11 to 2013/14 at one go in January.

The institute's system for declaration of interests was also found to be not up to standard.
Under its rules, a director shall not attend or vote in any meetings where matters in which they have an interest will be discussed.
But this was not always followed, the report noted. Institute chairman Carlson Tong Ka-shing once took part in discussions about a school partnership programme that involved an educational organisation he chaired.
The auditors recommended the institute, instead of getting directors to come clean only for meetings, make them declare interests at the point of joining the board and annually thereafter.
On attendance records, the corporate management committee scored the worst, at 56 per cent, among all board or committees in 2013/14. It endorses annual budgets and accounts.
A director, whom the report did not name, was absent from all the committee's 13 meetings between 2010/11 and 2013/14 - and was reappointed in April 2013.
On the training of athletes, the report noted, coaching departments failed to keep proper records, such as the training time, duration and the athletes' signatures. Full-time athletes must train for at least 25 hours a week to get the government's monthly grants; 693 athletes got HK$49 million in grants in 2013/14.


Hong Kong Sports Institute comes under fire over lack of audit mechanism

The Hong Kong Sports Institute might be doing a reasonable job of training athletes but is lacking in audit mechanisms, according to the government auditor. Photo: Nora Tam

News

Hong Kong

Education

Agency's not in a healthy state, with Audit Commission pointing to lax controls on finances and other issues


A public agency providing sports training and support to elite athletes has been upbraided by the government's audit watchdog for lacking an internal mechanism of checks and balances.
