Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac saidthat the government’s plan to amend a decree-law regulating the government’s procurement of goods and services aims to improve the transparency of the government’s procurement procedures.
Leong attended a plenum in the legislature’s hemicycle which discussed a debate motion by directly-elected lawmaker Mak Soi Kun on the procurement issue.
The legislature passed Mak’s debate motion last month, which questioned whether the government should amend as soon as possible the decree-law on the government’s procurement procedures – which he said was outdated.
In his motion, Mak noted that a raft of irregularities concerning the government’s acquisition of services has been revealed in a number of reports by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) and the Commission of Audit (CA) in recent years. He said that the outdated decree-law had led to this kind of irregularity.
Decree-law 122/84/M came into force back in 1985. Commentators and civic leaders in recent years have repeatedly called for amendments to the “antiquated” decree-law.
Replying to Mak’s motion, Leong reaffirmed that the government planned to start the legislative process of amending the decree-law regulating the government’s procurement procedures in the third quarter of next year. Leong made the same remarks while speaking to the media earlier this month.
Leong said that the future changes to the decree-law aimed to improve the transparency of the government’s procurement procedures and to ensure that the procedures are conducted openly and fairly.
