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Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (November 15):
Question:
The Government has recently procured by tender 36 Volkswagen Phaeton 3.2L large saloon cars (grade A) at a cost of $12 millions. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
(a) as an official from the Environmental Protection Department said, at the meeting of the Panel on Environmental Affairs of this Council on the 23rd of last month, that saloon cars of that model did not meet the fuel efficiency standards proposed by the Department for environment-friendly saloon cars, but the test report submitted by the agent concerned on the following day revealed that saloon cars of that model met the above standards, why saloon cars of that model changed within two days from not meeting to meeting the fuel efficiency standards;
(b) as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of this Council stated, in its report published in February 1999, that it totally rejected the authorities' view that the inclusion of minimum requirements for the exterior dimensions was to ensure relativity between cars of different grades, which reflected the dignity appropriate to the rank and status of an officer as a Head of Department or Bureau Secretary, whether the Government still adopted such a view in drawing up the specifications for the tendering exercise;
(c) as PAC considered in the same report that the dignity appropriate to the rank and status of senior civil servants could be better reflected by efficiency and frugality, rather than luxury and extravagance, whether the Government considered such a view in drawing up the specifications for the tendering exercise; and
(d) whether the guideline in the Stores and Procurement Regulations that the weight for quality score adopted in any marking scheme should be limited to 30% was followed in the tendering exercise?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) At the meeting of the Panel on Environmental Affairs on October 23, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) representative, on the basis of the data submitted by Volkswagen earlier on the emission and fuel efficiency of the Phaeton 3.2L model as a result of tests conducted by Volkswagen in 2003, said that the Phaeton 3.2L model met the proposed fuel efficiency standard, but failed to meet the proposed hydrocarbons emission limit as set out in the consultation paper provided by EPD to the EA Panel for the meeting on October 20. In view of the public concern over this matter, the Government had recently asked Volkswagen to test the latest version of that model again to evaluate its performance in emission. The latest test report was submitted by Volkswagen to the Government on October 24 (the day after the meeting of the Panel on Environmental Affairs). It shows that the new generation Phaeton 3.2L saloon cars are installed with a more effective emission control system, hence the emission level of hydrocarbons can meet the proposed standard for environment friendly saloon cars. The EPD representative made the above-mentioned response on October 23 without the benefit of knowledge of the results of the latest test conducted by Volkswagen.
(b) and (c) The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in its report published in February 1999, made a number of recommendations on the Government's tendering arrangements for the procurement of large saloon cars (for transporting visiting VIPs and for use by officers at D7 or above). The Government subsequently adopted these recommendations, for example, through revising the specifications for tendering exercises to clearly differentiate between mandatory requirements and desirable features. Regarding the relative weighting for price and quality in tender evaluation, we have reduced the weighting for quality to reflect the requirement for economy. In the specifications for the current large saloon car tender, the minimum requirements for the exterior dimensions are set after taking into account the actual operational use and requirements of the large saloon cars, for example, their use for transporting visiting VIPs.
(d) In the current tendering exercise, the Government has set the weighting for quality at 20% after making reference to the guideline for the adoption of a tender marking scheme set out in the Stores and Procurement Regulations, which is lower than the 30% recommended in the PAC Report.
Ends/Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:54
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