Hong Kong lawmakers will drastically reduce number of questions about new budget to allow government to focus on pandemic
- Usually the process of scrutinising the budget involves government departments dealing with thousands of questions from lawmakers
- But the Legislative Council’s president says lawmakers will be allowed to ask no more than 10 questions each to ‘allow the government to concentrate resources on fighting the epidemic’
Hong Kong lawmakers will comply with a request by the city’s leader to slash the number of questions they can ask about the next budget from thousands in total to no more than 10 per person to allow the administration to focus on battling a worsening fifth wave of coronavirus infections.
The move was slammed as “highly unsatisfactory” by Tik Chi-yuen, the only non-establishment lawmaker. A budget with an estimated annual recurrent expenditure of HK$60 million (US$7.7 million) required detailed scrutiny, Tik said on Tuesday.
“We can’t get the many details we need by asking 10 questions only. Our role of monitoring the government’s work will be significantly weakened if we are not given ample chances to ask questions,” he added.
Legislative Council president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen said the drastic limit on questions was agreed on by “lawmakers from all factions” in a letter sent to his 89 colleagues on Monday night, with Tik the lone voice of dissent.
The government’s budget is expected to be delivered on Wednesday by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, who will make the address via video for the first time ever due to the Covid-19 situation.
Usual practice dictates that the annual budget speech is followed by two months of scrutiny by Legco’s Finance Committee, a process that involves various departments answering thousands of questions from lawmakers.
