The Hong Kong government is quite 'frugal' with itself, with 'three public consumptions' compressed to the extreme.
Official Vehicles: Only about 20 officials in Hong Kong are authorized to have dedicated official cars.
Hong Kong has nearly 170,000 civil servants and currently owns over 6,300 official vehicles. Moreover, the government fleet is becoming increasingly smaller; from 2003 to 2011, the number of vehicles was reduced by more than 1,000. Among all civil servants, there are about 1,200 officials at or above the head-of-department level, accounting for less than 1% of the total civil service, representing the elite of the Hong Kong government. Of these, only about 20 top-level officials—the elite of the elite—are authorized to have dedicated cars.
In contrast, in mainland China, even some county and township-level officials have dedicated cars. According to research data from the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the National Bureau of Statistics, the total number of official vehicles in party and government organs and administrative institutions nationwide is over 2 million. Annual expenditure on official vehicle consumption is between 150 billion and 200 billion yuan, with vehicle procurement costs growing at an annual rate of 20%. During the 2006 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, all official vehicles of party and government organs were taken off the road, which surprisingly allowed Beijing, known as a 'congested city,' to have smooth traffic flow.
Official Hospitality: A maximum of six dishes, with leftovers packed to go.
The expenditure limit for official lunches and dinners for the Hong Kong government is 350 HKD and 450 HKD per person, respectively. For Chinese-style banquets, only 6 dishes can be ordered, and expensive ingredients like shark fin or endangered species are prohibited. Furthermore, leftovers must be packed to go. In comparison, the Shanghai Red Cross spent over 10,000 yuan on a single lunch, revealing just the tip of the iceberg of official dining on public funds in mainland China.
At the Hong Kong Legislative Council meeting on May 18, Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing announced the Hong Kong government's 'dining accounts' for recent years. From 2008 to 2010, the total expenditure on official entertainment meals for Hong Kong government officials at the head-of-department level was 13.109 million, 13.509 million, and 14.218 million HKD, respectively. Their average annual expenditure is equivalent to only one-tenth of the official reception expenses for 2010 announced by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Official Visits: Even the Chief Executive has to pay for his own airfare.
According to public information from the Hong Kong government, Chief Executive Donald Tsang made 40 overseas visits over four years, with total expenses of less than 1 million HKD. Among these, his visit to Guangzhou on April 1, 2008, to meet with the Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee cost only 420 HKD. Even more surprisingly, during his visit to Shenzhen in September 2010 to attend the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, his expenses were zero.
As the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang has even paid out of his own pocket to subsidize official overseas travel expenses. In 2008, when Donald Tsang planned to go to the United States for a vacation, a Hong Kong organization in the U.S. invited him to preside over a ceremony. The government believed the Chief Executive could handle some official business 'along the way,' so the round-trip airfare was covered by Donald Tsang himself.
Hong Kong uses institutional oversight for every detail of official consumption, with comprehensive public supervision.
Hong Kong's oversight of 'three public consumptions' is detailed down to 'a single sheet of official paper.'
Hong Kong's oversight of administrative expenses is detailed down to 'a single sheet of official paper' and 'the repair of a single piece of furniture,' and a department's expenditure budget report is often hundreds of pages long.
This attention to detail is evident in the expenditure reports of Chief Executive Donald Tsang's overseas visits over the past four years. It provides a detailed disclosure of the arrangements for Donald Tsang's visits from November 2007 to November 2010, including the date, location, itinerary, and corresponding expenses for food, accommodation, and airfare for each activity.
Compared to the 'meticulous' oversight of 'three public consumptions' in Hong Kong, the 'three public consumptions' in mainland China remain 'partially hidden behind a pipa.' Currently, 'three public consumptions' by local governments remain invisible and intangible, and the central government department accounts that have finally been released are only detailed to the 'category' and 'item' levels, without being broken down to the 'sub-item' level.
The Hong Kong government is willing to disclose 'three public' information and accept public supervision.
Government information disclosure is a consensus between the Hong Kong government and its citizens. Professor Cao Jingjun of the Department of Government and Public Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong believes that, to some extent, the Hong Kong government is willing to disclose such expenditure information because it is 'very beneficial for shaping the government's image.'
At the same time, Hong Kong citizens also believe that the integrity and efficiency of the government are first reflected in fiscal transparency. From the Chief Executive and the three Secretaries of Departments to the various high-ranking officials, their salaries and benefits are all public. Citizens understand the purpose of every government expenditure to prevent the government from using public funds for personal gain. The government also records the income and expenditure of each department in detail, uploads them to the internet, and even produces booklets for citizens to read and inquire about.
The Hong Kong government is harsh on itself but quite generous to its voters.
Although the treatment of Hong Kong civil servants is 'harsh,' their efficiency is eight times that of mainland public officials.
Hong Kong's GDP reached 212.3 billion USD in 2010, ranking 6th in the world. According to the indicator for measuring the efficiency of government civil servants—the ratio of the number of civil servants to GDP, which is the contribution of public officials to GDP—the ratio of Hong Kong civil servants to GDP is 0.8 persons per million USD.
In contrast, mainland China has 10.53 million civil servants, and including the unique public institution personnel in mainland China, there are more than 40 million public officials. In 2010, China's GDP was 6.0094 trillion USD, making the ratio of public officials to GDP in mainland China 6.7 persons per million USD. This means that for every million USD of GDP created, Hong Kong needs 0.8 public officials to serve it, while mainland China needs 6.7 civil servants, meaning their efficiency is only one-eighth that of Hong Kong civil servants.
The 'harsh' Hong Kong government is quite generous to its voters.
As everyone knows, Hong Kong is a welfare society. Half of the government's fiscal revenue is used for social service expenditures such as education, social security, medical care, and public housing, with a particular focus on subsidies for the poor and the general public. Data from the Hong Kong Labour and Welfare Bureau shows that during the financial crisis, the number of low-income households in Hong Kong decreased rather than increased.
At the same time, over the past five years, the Hong Kong government has reduced taxes every year to return wealth to the people. In 2008, it provided a one-time 75% reduction in salaries tax and personal assessment for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, with a ceiling of 25,000 HKD. Early this year, the Hong Kong government announced that it would provide electricity subsidies to more than 2.4 million households in Hong Kong and waive 1 to 2 months of rent for public housing tenants, involving an estimated expenditure of 20 billion HKD to alleviate the pressure of inflation on the public.
In 2008, due to a huge fiscal surplus, the Hong Kong government generously distributed 'red packets' totaling 40 billion HKD to citizens. In that same year, the Hong Kong government 'deducted' the airfare for Donald Tsang's business trips.