Review Report on the Lump Sum Grant Subvention ... - lwb.gov.hk

Australian system at that time.Annex IIPage 2 of 8Competitive bidding was introduced in Hong Kongfrom Australia in 1999, i.e. at the time when the Australia government had just begunto step back from extensive competitive bidding to renewal funding.6. Two conclusions drawn from the recent review of the Australia system havesome relevance to Hong Kong: The monitoring system only ensures accountability to government but notnecessary to the public. This seems to apply to the system in Hong Kongtoo. However, no much reference related to what kind of reform in theAustralia system was made to deal with this problem. Logically,outcome-based or impact-based monitoring system will make more sense tothe public than output-based or input-based monitoring system. The use of performance indicators had been excessive and had divertedresources from improving service quality. Reduction of performanceindicators and adjustment of monitoring efforts according to the level of riskof non-compliance were adopted to enhance efficiency of monitoring efforts.7. Another very recent development in Australia is the development of the nationalCompact modeled after the U.K. experience. The aim of developing the Compact isto develop a framework that outlines how the Government and service sector canwork together to improve and strengthen their relationship in the long run, and suchcompact will also spell out the general principles of funding and performancemonitoring.Lessons learned from the case of Canada8. The “contributions” in Canada are similar to subvention in Hong Kong. Weshould also note that the “grants” in Canada that aim at providing organizationalsupport and stability and enhancing capacity building is very similar to the componentin subvention in Hong Kong that includes subsidy for central administration andsupervision support.9. In the recent few years, Canadian government has made numerous efforts toimprove its grants and contributions system and the relationship between the NGOsector and the Government. Collaborative efforts are promoted from the formulationof social policy to the improvement of funding policy and practices. While theactual practices and improvement measures may or may not be applicable to the HongKong context, we should note the efforts of the Canadian government in using the