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Following is a question by the Hon Lee Cheuk-yan and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (January 10):
Question:
According to Financial Circular No. 4/2006 issued by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury to Directors of Bureaux and Controlling Officers, in respect of the tenders invited for government service contracts (excluding construction service contracts) that rely heavily on the deployment of non-skilled workers, a tender bid should not be considered if the tenderer concerned has been convicted of any of the following provisions during a certain period in the past: the provisions under the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) and the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282) which carry a maximum fine corresponding to Level 5 or higher within the meaning of Schedule 8 to the Criminal Procedure Ordinance (Cap. 221); sections 17I(1), 38A(4) and 41 of the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115); section 89 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance; and sections 7, 7A and 43E of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 485). For tenders invited in the first year from May 1, 2006, the reference period of conviction records will be the past 12-month period immediately preceding the tender closing date; for tenders invited within the following four years, the reference period will be from May 1, 2006 to the tender closing date; and for tenders invited thereafter, the reference period will be the five-year period immediately preceding the tender closing date. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the names of security/guarding services companies or cleansing services companies which have been convicted, within the period from May 1, 2005 to the present, of having breached any of the above provisions, and for each of the cases, of the case reference number, the charge(s), the penalty imposed, and whether the company concerned is currently engaged in any government service contract (if so, of the name of the relevant government department and the details of the service contract); and
(b) whether it will consider any tender bid lodged by a company which has one or more of its employees (who are neither shareholders nor partners of the company) convicted, within the reference period of conviction records, of having breached any of the above provisions?
Reply :
Madam President,
Our reply to the question raised by Hon Lee Cheuk-yan is as follows:
(a) For government service contracts, according to the provisions in the tender document, the contractors bidding for the service contracts have only given consent for the Government to use the obtained information in respect of conviction records for the purpose of tender evaluation and contract administration. The Government cannot disclose such information for uses other than tender evaluation and contract administration. For this reason, the Government cannot provide the names of the contractors with the relevant conviction records. By the same token, we cannot disclose the names of non-government service contractors on the same legal consideration. Notwithstanding the above legal constraints, the Government can however provide the following related information for Members' reference.
Based on the information available, during the period from May 1, 2005 to December 31, 2006, a total of 45 security/security guard services companies or cleansing services companies were convicted of the relevant provisions under the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) and the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282) which carry a maximum fine corresponding to Level 5 or higher, or the Mandatory Provident Funds Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 485) (Section 7 and 7A), involving 216 summonses from 56 cases and a total fine of $766,550. Of these cases, 20 companies have their conviction records arising from government's security/security guard or cleansing service contracts. These involved 23 cases, 112 summonses and a total fine of $532,400.
Eight of the above-mentioned 20 convicted companies are currently undertaking 40 security/security guard or cleansing services contracts awarded through tendering procedures. The tenders for all these contracts were invited before May 1, 2006. They are therefore not subject to the tightened measures as promulgated in Financial Circular No. 4/2006. The relevant information of these contracts is given at Annex.
(b) Procuring departments are required under Financial Circular No. 4/2006 to check with the Labour Department, the Immigration Department and the website of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority to see if the bidding company has any conviction records under the relevant offences of the Ordinances listed in the Financial Circular to determine whether its tender proposal should be considered.
Since contractors participating in tender for service contracts are required to be a legal person, e.g. a company or an organisation, under Financial Circular No. 4/2006, only the conviction records of the bidding company shall be counted. The Government will review the guidelines as stipulated in the Financial Circular from time to time to see if any improvements can be made where practicable.
Ends/Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Issued at HKT 11:32
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