New Hope lawmakers stress ‘Citizen Service Office’ key to legislative success

The two directly elected lawmakers under the “New Hope” group, José Pereira Coutinho and Che Sai Wang, said that their “Citizen Service Office” has played an essential role in the legislative performance of the last four-year term at the Legislative Assembly (AL).

Such a statement came during yesterday’s press conference, during which the group evaluated the legislative work of the past year.

According to Pereira Coutinho, the Citizen Service Office “is a fundamental structure that has allowed us to keep abreast of the most important concerns for society,” adding, “I must say that it was through this Citizen Service Office that we both, as lawmakers, based our work in the AL, namely the inquiries submitted before the agenda.”

The same lawmaker also noted that the vast majority of citizens’ issues and concerns reach the lawmakers through this office so that they can decide the best method to address them. This can result in either oral or written inquiries or even direct letters to government high officials or departments.

On the matter, Pereira Coutinho said he was pleased with the new government, led by Sam Hou Fai, noting a significant increase in celerity in addressing the problems brought to them and providing a much faster response when compared to previous governments.

“I must say that, with the new government taking office, one of the advancements we can point out is the resolution of specific cases. We have specific individual cases, complicated and urgent, which we have resolved on time with this new government, helping the families and individuals involved. This is a vital part of the work that falls within the remit of members of the AL, but this can only be done if these members [lawmakers] are working full-time,” Pereira Coutinho said.

Limits on inquiries harm the work

Addressing the topic of the number of inquiries submitted to the government via the AL and interventions made in plenary sessions, Pereira Coutinho said that the current AL limits, which only allow each lawmaker to submit one inquiry per week, hinder the lawmakers’ work, particularly for those who are more proactive and receive more concerns from the public.

The lawmaker hopes that in the next AL term, the limit on the number of inquiries that can be submitted will be raised to at least two so that matters can be discussed and addressed more promptly.

He noted that during this last term, it was noticeable that many inquiries needed to be adjusted when addressed in the plenary, since the time between the submission of the investigation and the date on which it could be addressed in plenary is, in many cases, too long. This renders some topics outdated and slows down the process of solving the problems mentioned.

“I must note that we are only allowed to submit one written interpellation per week. In other words, we both have many written interpellations in the backlog. This also means that many issues we raise lose their usefulness over time. Therefore, we believe it would be a strategic step forward to allow lawmakers to submit two written inquiries per week. This would solve the problem of usefulness over time,” Pereira Coutinho explained, adding that the same happens with oral inquiries that, after being submitted, need to be analyzed by the House of Rules and then wait for the president of the AL to schedule a plenary meeting where they finally can be addressed, losing their purpose and time-sensitivity in many cases.

According to the group’s statistics, the two lawmakers have submitted 528 inquiries, letters, and debate proposals over the past four years. The interventions mainly concerned unemployment, public health, public transport and traffic, bullying, the suicide rate, and high interest rates on banking loans to companies.

Unemployment of youngsters and high number of TNRs

Among the matters that have been addressed but still lack concrete measures, Pereira Coutinho noted the unemployment rate of the young generation, namely fresh graduates, and their relation with the high number of non-resident workers (TNRs).

The lawmaker said that the current employment situation for the younger generation is not only causing problems for those who study locally but is also preventing residents who go abroad to complete their studies from returning to Macau and benefiting the local economy.

On the topic of TNRs, Pereira Coutinho noted that the group has called on several occasions for the government to implement effective measures to control the excessive number of TNRs, particularly in large companies.

New public procurement regime needs improvement

Although finally approved in plenary in mid-July and published on the government’s official gazette just a month ago, the new public procurement regime has flaws and needs improvement, Pereira Coutinho said.

The lawmaker said the regime “must be improved in transparency, and the specifications and evaluation criteria must be justifiable and reasonable.”

He stated that this regime must be reviewed to ensure every contract is included in the Public Procurement Portal. Although establishing such a portal is positive, it is currently incomplete and does not include all contracts from all government entities.

He explained that some departments and bureaus post this information through different websites, making it complex and time-consuming to analyze and supervise these contracts.

Despite this opinion yesterday, both lawmakers voted in favor of the bill’s approval, which was passed unanimously at the AL on July 14.