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The Housing Department (HD) accepted recommendations by the Ombudsman in its direct investigation report on the department's handling of complaints involving claims.
A spokesman for the department today (August 27) said: "The HD, being an executive arm of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), is responsible for the management of over 150 public housing estates. The HA has taken out public liability insurance to protect the interests of the public and the department. According to standard clauses in the insurance contract, the HD has to refer all claims for damages from complainants to the insurance company which would then ask its loss adjuster to conduct investigations.
"We accept all recommendations by the Ombudsman and would remind our staff to strictly observe and comply with the related guidelines and instructions for improvement in handling complaints involving claims for damages. We will also step up efforts to monitor the loss adjusters' handling of claims to ensure compliance with the prescribed procedures and service standard. Some recommended measures in the report have already been put into practice while the remaining ones will be implemented as soon as possible.
"The HD will also enhance staff training that includes regularly re-circulating related guidelines and organising experience sharing seminars to enrich the techniques and knowledge of HD staff in handling complaints," the spokesman added.
The spokesman said that for incidents of a similar nature, apart from referring the claims to the loss adjuster of the insurance company, the HD would also carry out parallel investigations to find out the root causes of the problem so as to prevent a recurrence.
Ends/Thursday, August 27, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:14
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