Cost Of Hiring Plan For National Games Spurs Concerns

Unionist lawmakers on Monday questioned the need to hire three additional directorate-level staff at a cost to taxpayers of nearly HK$12 million a year to prepare for the 2025 National Games.

In a paper submitted to the Legislative Council, the government proposed hiring three senior directorate officers, supported by a team of 40, to collaborate with the Guangdong and Macau governments on co-hosting the 15th National Games.

The salaries of the three top officials alone would cost $8,415,600 a year, while the total cost of hiring them would be about $11,846,000.

Some members of Legco, including sports representative Kenneth Fok and Rebecca Chan, welcomed the move and even questioned whether more posts might need to be created to help prepare for the games, but unionist legislators asked why existing officials can't take up the responsibilities, warning that “too many cooks may spoil the broth”.

“One of the themes of the National Games is simplicity. However, your proposal is not very simple. You are proposing three supernumerary posts at the directorate level at an expenditure of about $8 million,” Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) lawmaker Joephy Chan said.

“We need to be modest. And please don't give the community the impression that whenever we have a new event, we always have to create new positions,” another FTU lawmaker Luk Chung-hung said. He questioned whether the mainland authorities had also boosted senior manpower for the National Games.

"This is a mega event, but must we add three extra directorate grade officers?" Luk asked.

The Under Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Raistlin Lau, described Luk's comments as “unacceptable”.

He said the administration had gone through "a very rigorous assessment" before submitting the manpower proposal, adding that authorities expect a heavy workload as the liaison among the co-hosts will be intense.

“We have taken reference from our experience in hosting the East Asia Games and also the 25th anniversary of the reunification celebration activities. Based on this, we believe we need this level of manpower support," Lau said.

"We are not proposing three additional posts in an arbitrary manner.”

The proposal will now be submitted to the Legislative Council Establishment Subcommittee for further discussion.