Lawmaker Coutinho criticizes gov’t inaction over major social issues

Lawmaker Pereira Coutinho said that the city’s current employment situation, quality of education, issues with corruption, and the inability of government officials to solve population issues all continue to be matters of concern.
In an interview with TDM Radio, Coutinho criticized the lack of progress in the above issues since Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng took office in December.
“He was not lucky, he got hit by the pandemic, he doesn’t have time to deal with other things. As everything is centralized, the other secretaries also do not dare say and assume responsibilities,” said the lawmaker.
Although he believes Ho Iat Seng has had a good start in leading the administration, Countinho criticized his team of secretaries.
“The public administration cannot be governed by a person; it is a team. There are so many decisions that the government loses in the courts, but there are no responsibilities, there are no consequences. He has a team of unhelpful secretaries [who] should be placed on the shelf,” he added.
The lawmaker also called on the government administration to move forward with another financial subsidy to support families, which includes subsidies for water and electricity consumption.
From March through May this year, all households were exempted from paying electricity and water bills as part of the government’s subsidy scheme for the pandemic outbreak.
Families receiving subsidies from the Social Welfare Bureau will also be issued a double subsidy in September to complement an advance payment from March.
Coutinho also stressed that employers should not treat their workers’ 14-day quarantine periods as vacations, and should instead consider them periods of justified absence.
“Holidays are holidays. They are a fundamental right of workers for physical, psychological and moral recovery and so that they can later perform better,” he maintains.
Coutinho claims he is aware of a case in which a worker had requested time off work to attend the of his mother who passed away in Taiwan. However, the worker was told that the 14-day quarantine upon his return to the SAR would be deducted from his annual leave, which Coutinho considered “unacceptable.”