DSF: 17 gov’t departments wholly renting private offices

By
Newsdesk

The Director of the Financial Services Bureau (DSF), Iong Keong Leong, said a total of 17 public departments are currently wholly renting private commercial venues for their operations – while the majority of other departments are wholly or partly working in government-owned properties.
Legislator Ella Lei Cheng I recently filed an interpellation with the DSF head, urging the financial department to review the needs of public departments renting private commercial venues for their offices in order to decrease the related expenses and make better use of public money.
According to the 2016 Budget, the Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac has allocated nearly MOP1.1 billion (US$137.5 million) for government bodies to rent private offices this year, double the MOP420 million-odd of 2011.
In his reply to the legislator, Mr. Iong claimed that most government-owned properties had already been allocated for office use by public departments.
“As the remaining minority cannot fulfill departments’ actual needs due to their old age, unsuitable size, remote locations and lack of auxiliary facilities, they are still being managed by the Financial Services Bureau (DSF),” the official wrote, adding his department would strengthen communications with other departments for better use of the city’s public resources.
In the same enquiry, the directly-elected legislator also complained about the department’s waste of public money having left the second floor of the government’s public service complex in Areia Preta vacant for some six years.
Mr. Iong responded that public departments are stationing inside the complex in different phases in consideration of the relationship of different public services, as well as the co-ordination of human resources.
He added that the Identification Bureau would expand its current services in the building to the second floor during the second half of 2017 with 11 new counters introduced, suggesting the complex would become fully operational at that time.