Legco Passes HK$215bn Stop-gap Funding Package

Lawmakers have passed a HK$215 billion package to bridge a gap in funding until this year’s budget is approved.

The pan-democratic camp had been trying to delay the vote, saying funding allocated to the Chief Executive’s Office and the police should be cut or reduced because of the way they handled last year’s mass social unrest.

The filibustering continued on Wednesday, with IT sector lawmaker Charles Mok calling for the police force to be disbanded, saying the public were dissatisfied with the “police violence problem”.

Lawmakers Andrew Wan, Wu Chi-wai and Fernando Cheung also submitted amendments to scrap funding for the Chief Executive's Office and the police.

But the request was finally put to vote in the afternoon and it sailed through with 39 lawmakers backing it, and 24 voting against it.

Earlier on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary James Lau warned that many of the city’s public services would shut down, and efforts to fight the Covid-19 outbreak would be hampered if lawmakers did not approve the funding.

“If we have actually orders for what we call personal protective equipment like masks, isolation gowns, face shields or protective coveralls, a lot of these would require cash payments or payments immediately upon delivery of service or the goods,” he said.

“That’s why we believe that if the vote on accounts resolution is not passed this week, there will be an adverse impact, very serious adverse impact on the anti-epidemic work that we take.”