Since the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020, the Hong Kong government’s expenses for “safeguarding national security” are unknown to the public, except that the government allocated HK$8 billion (US$1 billion). Recently, the government submitted “The Report on the Control and Management of the Special Fund to Meet the Expenditure for ‘Safeguarding National Security’ to the Legislative Council (LegCo),” but it contains only three pages without any details on the spending.
Chung Kim-wah, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, criticized in an interview with The Epoch Times that all the departments and tasks established in the name of the National Security Law are entirely out of the supervision of the system of Hong Kong.
On July 13, the Financial Secretary (FS) of Hong Kong submitted a report to the Legislative Council on the Control and Management of the Special Fund to Meet the Expenditure for Safeguarding National Security. The report was prepared for the expenditure for “safeguarding national security” in 2021. However, it contains only three pages, and no press release was issued. It is a very low-key report.
The report pointed out that Article 19 in Hong Kong National Security Law states, “the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong shall, upon approval of the Chief Executive, appropriate, from the general revenue a special fund to meet the expenditure for safeguarding national security and approve the establishment of relevant posts, which are not subject to any restrictions in the relevant provisions of the law in force in the Region. The Financial Secretary shall submit an annual report on the control and the management of the fund for this purpose to the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.”
The document claimed that the Hong Kong government’s funding for “safeguarding national security” is appropriated strictly following the relevant regulations of the Hong Kong National Security Law.
No Breakdown Revealed
The Hong Kong government only revealed that the expenditure of 2021 is categorized into two types, but no breakdown or amounts are shown. First, recurrent expenditure—including salaries and allowances, expenses on engaging specialized services, rents, and other operating and administrative expenses. Second is a non-recurrent expenditure, including minor construction works, specialized equipment, system set-up, machinery and vehicles, and other capital expenditures. In terms of revenue, it is mainly in the form of interest from deposits. During the reporting period, the government did not further inject funds into the Special Fund.The government explained that according to Article 14 of the Hong Kong National Security Law, “no institution, organization or individual in Hong Kong shall interfere with the work of the Hong Kong Committee on National Security, and information relating to its work shall not be subject to disclosure.” Therefore, the government will not disclose further details concerning the use of the Special Fund.
Dedicated Accounting and Financial Unit
The report pointed out that given the unique and confidential nature of the work about “safeguarding national security,” a dedicated accounting and monetary “unit” has been set up in the Hong Kong Committee on National Security secretariat. The unit reports directly to the FS and is responsible for the revenue and expenditure arrangements and financial matters relating to such work.The FS said that he had perused the independently audited 2021 financial statements prepared in respect of the Special Fund and noted that the independent auditor had agreed that the financial statements were prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements of Article 19 of the Hong Kong National Security Law. The financial audit was conducted in accordance with the Hong Kong Standards on Auditing.
According to research by The Epoch Times, the report submitted by the government on July 13 is nearly identical to the one presented on Oct. 19, 2021; both contained three pages.
NSD Not Supervised
Chung Kim-wah said in the interview that the so-called “national security” is a “false proposition.” The government is “controlling the freedom of speech” and “suppressing opposition” instead of dealing with “national security.” Therefore the report and the expenditure do not make any sense to anyone.Also, Chung mentioned that the government’s report submitted to the LegCo does not answer the core questions about the expenditure; it is just a routine official article.
He cited that Article 19 of the National Security Law stated that the expenditures for safeguarding national security are not subject to any restrictions in the relevant provisions of the laws in force in Hong Kong. It is why all the departments and the tasks in the name of National Security Law are entirely out of the supervision of the system of Hong Kong.
More Secretive Than ‘Top Secret’
in an interview with The Epoch Times, Ben Lam Siu-pan, former Chairman of the Working Group on Security Affairs in Hong Kong’s Yau Tsim Mong District Council, questioned why the expenditure on national security is “confidential.” He thought that people did not want to know how many bullets the NSD of the Hong Kong Police Force had purchased or the locations investigated by the national security police officers.However, “we have no idea how much money is left from the HK$8 billion. Hongkongers only want to know roughly what the taxpayers’ money has been spent on, such as wages, number of personnel, equipment purchased, and rents, among others, and the percentage for each item,” Lam said.
He said it was incomprehensible that the Hong Kong government’s national security expenditure is more secretive than the “top secret” of the international military.
He compared Hong Kong’s national security expenditure to a “black hole,” which is beyond supervision. “How many people in Hong Kong can access the national security’s ledger? Perhaps only ten people?”
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