Lam pledges early engagement with ExCo
Members of the Executive Council have been divided into six groups to facilitate better communication between policy bureau heads and the council, ExCo convener Bernard Chan revealed.
He believes it is too early to judge whether the plan will succeed as it is early days for the new government.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has pledged to engage ExCo members during the early stages of policymaking.
Chan recalled that in the past, ExCo members often complained to the CE that they were informed at a late stage when polices were close to formulation; they claimed it was hard to change anything. There were arrangements for policy secretaries to work closely with ExCo members, but these were not strictly enforced.
“It is more serious this time around, with all the policy bureau heads willing to enhance communication with us,” he said.
Chan stressed that the success of this arrangement depends on policy secretaries and how early they will inform the ExCo members of policies in the pipeline.
“From the standpoint of the ExCo members, they want to take part in policymaking process, initiate new ideas and be the gatekeeper,” Chan said. “They don’t want to merely rubber-stamp policy recommendations that are tabled to ExCo at the final stage.”
Chan said policy recommendations submitted to the ExCo might have gone through lengthy procedures over a long period of time, such as public consultation, discussions with industry or stakeholders, and revisions by the civil servants.
“So it is not good and not easy to reject them simply because an ExCo member or two object to the policy proposals,” he added.
Chan said it is necessary to explore the best way policy secretaries and ExCo members can interact.
“We need to have more people to assist the policy secretaries but not to teach them how to do their work. Since policy secretaries are politically accountable officials, it is important they feel comfortable with their working relationship with the ExCo members,” he said.
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It is more serious this time around, with all the policy bureau heads willing to enhance communication with us.”