PUBLIC DONATIONS HELD BY MINISTRIES

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PUBLIC DONATIONS HELD BY MINISTRIES: 14.

Dr Wang Kai Yuen asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance what is the basis for funds donated by the public and held by the various Ministries to be reverted to the Treasury.

15.

Ms Indranee Rajah asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance in relation to the public donations held by the Ministries of Health, Home Affairs and Community Development and Sports which are to be paid over to the Treasury, how will these funds be applied or dealt with by the Treasury after it receives them.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: Sir, can I have your permission to take Question Nos. 14 and 15 together?

Mr Deputy Speaker: Yes.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: Dr Wang asked about the basis for donated funds held by the various Ministries to be reverted to the Treasury and Ms Indranee Rajah asked how reverted funds would be dealt with by the Treasury.

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Let me first assure the House that all donations by the public are spent on the purposes specified by the donors. The Government does not channel any donation to other uses without the permission of the donors.

Under our current guidelines, all donations received by a Ministry for a specific purpose have to be placed in a deposit account. This money cannot be considered as revenue to the Government and can only be used for the purpose specified by the donors. If there are surplus funds left over after the project or programme has been completed, the Ministry should return these funds to the donors, or seek their consent to use the funds for other purposes. The Ministry cannot transfer these surpluses to the Government's Consolidated Fund.

Hence, in the case of the Ministry of Home Affairs' Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), the CNB is currently awaiting approval from the donor to expand the scope for the use of the remaining funds. Should this be turned down, the funds will be returned to the donor. Likewise, the Ministry of Community Development and Sports has sought the approval of its donors to return the unused funds or to use them for future campaigns of a similar nature.

Dr Wang and Ms Rajah were probably referring to the donations for health science research and development being transferred to the Treasury. The situation there is different. The donations were tied to the total expenditure of the research programmes as specified by the donors. The Ministry may first pay from its own funds to meet some expenditures before claiming reimbursements from the donated funds and channelling them back to the Government. The donations were, in fact, from the Totalisator Board. It is an example of the Government being reimbursed for expenses

which should partly have been borne by the donations,

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but had been paid for using the Ministry's funds in the first instance. The Acting Minister for Health would deal with the details of this case in his reply to Dr Wang.

Let me mention, however, that not all donations are made with a specified purpose. In some cases, donations or gifts of money are made outright to the Government, ie, the Government is named as the beneficiary. For these cases, the donated funds are credited directly to Government revenue. And provision for expenditure will then be made in the annual budget estimates of the Ministries.