Three education funds to be merged
A parliamentary committee has concluded its discussion of the reviews of two education-related laws, in which the integration of three existing education funds has been proposed.
The laws in concern are the Outline Law for the Non-tertiary Education System and the Higher Education System Law.
The Third Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL), led by indirectly elected lawmaker Vong Hin Fai, issued its opinions on the law review. A press conference was held yesterday for this purpose.
Member lawmakers of the committee were concerned with the mode in which the government could ensure uninterrupted operation of the funds, as otherwise it may cause severe disruption to students and to the operation of educational institutions.
To facilitate the merger of the three funds, namely the Education Development Fund, the Higher Education Fund and the Student Welfare Fund, dedicated Executive Regulations will be promulgated as the Bill goes through its second reading in parliament, the government said in response to concerns raised by committee lawmakers.
Elaborating on the contents of the aforementioned Executive Regulations, Vong, citing the government, said that necessary transitional rules will be included, so that the new fund will be able to inherit all rights and obligations currently vested in the three existing funds.
So as to achieve a seamless transition while unifying the three existing funds, the Executive Branch has proposed that the bill be promulgated as law on June 1, if it is passed by the legislature, even though not passing a bill has been rare.
The date was also proposed in order to leave at least 60 days prior to the law’s coming into effect. The Executive Regulations, meanwhile, will come into effect on the same date.
Another topic of concern, as Vong disclosed, was supervision over subsidies issued to educational institutions. In response, the government pointed out that the regulations and charters have been introduced in the Education Development Fund and the Higher Education Fund to require the subsidized parties to operate tenders when they need external services.
The government style of tender operation needs to be followed by the subsidized parties. Different modes will be followed for different scales of service or product acquisitions. The government has also disclosed that it would consider establishing a central vendor database for frequent services, such as field trips and excursions.
With that said, a central database of interested or participating travel agencies will be established for educational institutions to request quotations.
In this regard, Vong said member lawmakers accepted the government’s explanation. They also hope that the new fund will be better managed, so as to avoid the misuse of public funds.
Previously, the Commission Against Corruption had issued reports slamming the perplexity and lack of transparency in the operations of the three funds, which gave way to potential corruption and the misuse of public resources.
On the applicability of the new laws to the Higher Institute of the Security Forces, Vong disclosed that the entity would be exempted, in spite of it being a higher education institution.
For example, Vong said, to require the institution to have five full-time academics with a doctoral degree would be unrealistic, as it does not regularly open programs, like other comprehensive institutions.
