Scheme Transparency Ensured: CS

The Government will ensure absolute transparency of the Employment Support Scheme, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said today.

Mr Cheung made the statement after attending a radio programme this morning, and reiterated that under the new $80 billion scheme, eligible employers have to undertake that they cannot implement redundancy and that the subsidy will go towards paying staff.

"We have got two very important criteria. One is, no redundancy at all. The second thing is, all the subsidy from the Government for that particular purpose must go to paying staff salaries and not other purposes. A very restrictive approach."

He added that the list of applicants for the scheme would be open for public inspection.

"We will ensure absolute transparency of the scheme. For any successful applicant, their amount of subsidy disbursed and so on will be released to the public, and also particularly to the employees concerned, so they know whether the employers have applied for the scheme and whether they are successful indeed.

"And finally in Hong Kong, we have got a very active media and also a very active trade union movement here."

Mr Cheung also said that imposing a penalty against those who did not comply with the scheme's regulations would be discussed.

"If there is any criminal element involved - conspiracy, dishonesty and so on - we will act in accordance with the law. Any outstanding sum that is not used will be clawed back. We are also considering imposing a penalty for any deviation from the so-called regulation or rules imposed by the scheme. Now, all these need to be thrashed out in the next few days.

"We will be going to the Finance Committee coming Friday. A special Finance Committee meeting will be lined up. Then the whole thing will go firm, because there are still some minor details yet to be thrashed out."