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Following is a question by the Hon Cyd Ho Sau-lan and a written reply by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Stephen Lam, in the Legislative Council today (May 9):
Question:
Given the imminent handover between the current-term Chief Executive (CE) and the Chief Executive-elect (CE-elect), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) how CE's Office will handle the files and records generated by the current-term CE within his term of office, and of the principles based on which the documents and records will be transferred to the next-term CE or to the Government Records Service (GRS), or will be destroyed;
(b) how CE-elect's Office will handle the files and records generated after its establishment, and of the principles based on which the documents and records will be transferred to CE's Office or to GRS, or will be destroyed, after the CE-elect takes office;
(c) upon the departure from office of the first CE of the Special Administrative Region (SAR), of the respective numbers of records which had been transferred to the CE of the following term, or to GRS, or had been destroyed, together with the lists of records which had been transferred to GRS and destroyed;
(d) of the numbers and linear metres of records created by CE's Office on its liaison with the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong SAR (known as the Hong Kong Branch of the Xinhua News Agency before January 18, 2000) in each of the years since July 1, 1997; whether the aforesaid records are all kept at CE's Office; whether the records concerned have ever been transferred to GRS or destroyed;
(e) whether CE's Office will destroy the documents on the social activities and arrangements for private vacations of the current-term CE and his wife for the reason of protection of privacy; whether it will undertake to transfer such records to GRS for assessing how they should be handled; and
(f) whether the authorities have drawn reference from the rules on the handover of records upon the expiry of the terms of the leaders of foreign countries in handling the handover of records of CE's Office; if they have, of the written rules put in place by CE's Office on handling the records created by CE during his term of office; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Regarding the question raised by Hon Cyd Ho Sau-lan, our reply is as follows:
(a) The Office of the Chief Executive (CE's Office) will handle the records and files generated during the term of office of the incumbent CE according to General Circular No. 2/2009 "Mandatory Records Management Requirements" (the Requirements) issued by the Administration Wing.
(b) The Office of the Chief Executive-elect will handle the records and files generated after its establishment and transfer them to the CE's Office in accordance with the Requirements.
(c) Upon the departure from office of the first Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region (SAR), the relevant records and files were retained in the CE's Office.
(d) We generally do not publicly comment in detail on the communication between the SAR Government and relevant departments of the Central People's Government (including the Liaison Office).
(e) The CE's Office will handle the documents on the official social engagements of the CE and his wife according to the Requirements. As for private activities, including private social functions and vacation arrangements, since they are not public duties, there are no files on related documents.
(f) The CE's Office will handle the files created during CE's term of office in accordance with the Requirements.
Ends/Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Issued at HKT 11:31
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