Cultural authority instructed to spend money wisely

This file photo shows current Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U in her former role as head of the Identification Services Bureau

Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U has reportedly instructed the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) to be cautious about its spending.
As cited in a TDM Radio report, the president of the IC, Mok Ian Ian, said that the office must “be much more careful with every expense,” when commenting on the bureau’s future spending.
Mok was speaking on the sidelines of the New Year’s Eve Concert Opening Ceremony yesterday, heralding the start of an event that will be attended by artists from Hong Kong and Macau.
The budget of the event was said to be around 4 million patacas.
At the Ceremony, Mok explained, “We will review the expenses. We have had a [goal] of readjusting the expenses.” However, for now, the IC head said that there are still no plans to cut the bureau’s budget.
This comes after Ao Ieong’s predecessor Alexis Tam was accused by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng of overspending government resources on public projects, the outcomes of which could not be ascertained.
On his first day of work as Chief Executive, Ho said the new government should have greater control over the use of public money.
In an interview with the TDM Chinese channel, Ho addressed his reasons for dropping the former Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong, and Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, from the new government.
“Being wasteful is the biggest crime, I would say. Corruption is not the only crime, just one of the elements [to take into account]. But being wasteful is also among the biggest crimes,” said Ho, speaking about Tam’s tenure as secretary.
Ho recalled that, as the former president of the Legislative Assembly, one of the topics he often addressed and was concerned about was the “waste of public resources.”
“Wasting resources is a current problem [from the previous government] and Tam’s Secretariat accounted for 35% of the annual budget – at least 30 billion patacas – and yet he was often a target of public dissatisfaction,” said Ho.
He then defended his reasons for replacing Tam with Elsie Ao Ieong U, noting that Ao Ieong is “thinking based on science and logic,” the opposite of Tam, who Ho said was more focused on rhetoric, speeches and slogans.
Alexis Tam – who is now the head of the Macau Economic and Commercial Delegation in Portugal, headquartered in Lisbon – was formerly Chui Sai On’s Chief of Office before being appointed as the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture in Chui’s second term.
In an interview with the Times, political scientist Larry So said that Tam became quite popular while serving in the position, and this aided his subsequent appointment as one of Chui’s ministers. “During that time, he was quite popular in the community, especially in the civil organization,” So explained.