Under Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury James Lau says the considerable extension of time required for the Legislative Council to scrutinise issues due to filibustering has incurred additional public expenditure and the situation is worrying.
Mr Lau told lawmakers today that the average time required for the Finance Committee to vet and approve an item has multiplied from an average of 1.12 hours in the 2012-13 legislative session to 3.21 hours as of May 13.
For some controversial items, the time required was often as long as tens of hours, he added.
It now takes about nine months for a works project to go through the process of obtaining the relevant panel's support until funding approval, while it took only seven months in 2014-15 and three months in 2005-06.
Mr Lau noted that the annual expenditure on capital works projects accounts for about one-third of the overall works expenditure in Hong Kong, while the local construction industry employs more than 300,000 people, accounting for 10% of the labour force.
In the middle to long-term, failure to secure funding for public works items will cause a fall in works expenditure, dealing a blow to the industry and slowing down the enhancement of community facilities and Hong Kong's sustainable development, he added.
Mr Lau said from 2010-11 to 2014-15, works projects approved by the Finance Committee totalled a yearly average of $91 billion, of which new projects accounted for $74 billion.
In the current legislative session, works projects totalling $46 billion have so far been approved, of which new projects account for only $11.2 billion.
While there are only two months left before the end of the current legislative session, items on 22 bills and seven subsidiary legislations are outstanding. As at May 13, approval for more than 20 non-works and 40 works projects are still pending amounting to $47 billion.
The Government will make every effort to facilitate the council's work and hopes that lawmakers will make effective use of the limited meeting time and endeavour to complete the outstanding business, Mr Lau said.
