The Education Bureau (EB) has been paying rent for decades on a piece of land, which the bureau itself assigned to the Hong Kong Schools Sailing Association 36 years ago.

Ombudsman Alan Lai described the arrangement whereby the bureau pays rent on land it already owns as "ridiculous".

The lease to the government department for the Tai Po plot, terminated in 2004, was set at HK$1,500 per month amounting to a total payout of some HK$1.8 million.

A direct investigation of the matter discovered that when the Hong Kong Schools Sailing Association (HKSSA) was formed during the 1960's, one of the members of the association's executive committee was at that time the director of education. In 1974, the association's director/director of education wrote to the District Officer of the New Territories Administration in 1974 stating, "(The Education Bureau) would like to obtain a plot of land ... for the purpose of establishing an outdoor education center of schools primarily."

Having obtained grants of HK$610,000 for its construction and expansion under the then Governor's Special Fund, the association operated until 2007 when it took a nine-month hiatus before resuming activities.

During that time, the Education Bureau and the Lands Department (LD) had a dispute over who should take responsibility for the under utilized site.

Lai lambasted the EB for shirking responsibility and for not monitoring the site's usage. Senior Investigation Officer Richard Lee said the number of participants in the association's activities per year was 176 in 2000, falling to 120 in 2006 with a peak usage of 280 in 2003.

Although the Ombudsman and EB did not reveal the identity of the sports association, records provided by the public watchdog match the history listed on the website of the HKSSA, adjacent Tai Po's Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Tai Mei Tuk Outdoor Activities Center, both of which are situated on a 300 by 400 meter peninsula jutting out between Plover Cove Reservoir and Tolo Harbor.

Enquiries to the HKSSA were not returned as of press time.

The Ombudsman suggested that the EB closely monitor the site's usage and discontinue the association's use and return the site to the LD if it is under utilized.

For its part, the EB said it accepted the Ombudsman's recommendations and will review its monitoring of allocated sites while the specific association will be asked to take steps to increase usage and oversight.

Lai said whether or not the government could seek to recover the money paid in rent to the association would be up to the Audit Commission.

The investigation was launched after an inquiry was made by a member of the public who thought the site abandoned, he said.

China Daily

(HK Edition 09/10/2010 page1)