To facilitate greater understanding of EPP and to exchange views on particular concerns to the subvented sector, Finance Bureau organised a Seminar on EPP specifically for the Government-subvented sector on 7 July 1999.  

The participation was very encouraging. Over 150 subvented organisations attended the Seminar; the majority of them came from the welfare sector. Colleagues from relevant bureaux and departments also took part. Feedback was positive and attendants welcomed the chance to have a useful exchange over various issues relating to EPP.

The Seminar comprised presentations by Mrs Carrie Lam, Deputy Secretary for the Treasury, Dr Pamela Leung, Hospital Chief Executive of the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital and Dr William Wong, Director of Evaluation, Alberta Advanced Education and Career Development of the Alberta Government, Canada. These were followed by a panel discussion with the three speakers joined by Mrs Patricia Chu, Acting Director of Social Welfare and Mr Andy Lee, Deputy Director (Finance) of the Hospital Authority. Participants were very enthusiastic in raising questions. For those who may be interested in the discussion in this Seminar, we are producing a summary in this Newsletter.  
 
Presentations  
EPP & Importance of Subvented Sector 
 
Mrs Carrie Lam started off the Seminar by explaining the fiscal position of the Government which made the implementation of EPP a pressing concern. She then explained the underlying principles of EPP. She said, "EPP is NOT a spending cut programme. Government expenditure will continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate". She added that "One of the important principles of EPP is that any productivity enhancement should not be achieved at the expense of quality. However, there may be some adjustment to the quantity. Where services are underutilised, we would encourage the agency to take a critical look at whether there is any scope for service rationalisation and right-sizing." Turning to the importance of the subvented sector, Mrs Lam said that total Government subvention accounted for about 42% of Government recurrent expenditure in 1998-99 (see Figure 1 for the breakdown), any plan to ensure more efficient use of public funds would not succeed without the full co-operation of the subvented sector. She appealed to the audience for continued support to the EPP endeavour. She ended the presentation by explaining the Government's subvention policy and the Finance Bureau's role as a facilitator in EPP.  
 
Figure 1
 
EPP in a Large Hospital 

Dr Pamela Leung then shared with the audience her experience in managing a large hospital and achieving enhanced productivity in the light of increasing demand from patients. We have invited Dr Leung to write an article to recapitulate her presentation. Please see separate column: "Experience Sharing".    

Note: Dr Pamela Leung is the Hospital Chief Executive of the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.    

Government Re-engineering and Performance Evaluation   

Dr William Wong presented the government re-invention/ re-engineering principles adopted by the Alberta Government. He shared with us how the Alberta Government transformed itself from one living on serious deficits to one that is now debt-free. There are five important principles, including (a) recognising the steering role of the Government; (b) injecting competition into service delivery; (c) fostering a customer-driven culture; (d) defining success on the basis of agreed output/outcome indicators, i.e. result-oriented; and (e) empowering the communities to provide services. Dr. Wong then turned to the importance of performance evaluation in a re-invented organisation, be it the Government or a subvented organisation. He said, "What gets measured gets done. If you can't measure performance, you cannot manage it; you can't tell success from failure; you can't learn from it and make on-going improvement." He stressed the usefulness of output indicators and continuous programme evaluation. He viewed the EPP as a beginning of a new direction for our management culture and wished us every success.   

Note: Dr William Wong has extensive experience in performance evaluation in public services. He was invited by the Central Policy Unit to share with us his experience in welfare reform in Alberta, Canada a couple of years ago.   

 
Panel Discussion & Q&As   

The Seminar reached its climax when attendants joined the panelists to discuss a wide range of EPP issues. Attendants from the welfare sector were concerned about a number of practical issues relating to EPP in the welfare sector. In response, acting Director of Social Welfare said that a meeting had already been scheduled with the parties concerned to tackle the issues. Mrs Carrie Lam assured representatives from the welfare NGOs that Finance Bureau would give Social Welfare Department the support needed in their working with NGOs. For example, Finance Bureau was actively considering the proposal put forward by some NGOs providing rehabilitation services the possibility of creating new services in existing facilities.  

Some attendants then raised their concern over the lack of flexibility in the existing subvention rules. Some were worried that the use of IT might lead to a reduction in employment opportunities and some wanted to clarify the impact of the introduction of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes.  

We might not have provided all the answers needed but the Seminar is no doubt a good opportunity for enhanced communication between the Administration and the subvented sector on what EPP is all about and how it can be done.