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Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, in introducing the Government Minute in response to the Report No. 49 of the Public Accounts Committee dated February 2008 in the Legislative Council today (May 21) (translation):
Madam President,
Laid on the table today is the Government Minute responding to Report No. 49 of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Legislative Council.
When presenting the PAC Report No. 49 on February 20, the Chairman of the PAC set out in detail the comments of the PAC regarding the outsourcing of the management of public rental housing (PRH) estates in the Director of Audit¡¦s report. Details of the Government¡¦s response to the conclusions and recommendations in the Report are set out in the Minute. Today, I would like to explain the key measures taken in the relevant areas.
Outsourcing of the management of public rental housing estates
We fully agree that it is important to protect non-skilled workers engaged in outsourcing contracts awarded to the property services agents (PSAs) and contractors in the management of PRH estates. The Housing Department (HD) has implemented stringent measures to step up action against employment-related irregularities and strengthen the supervision of PSAs and contractors. HD has issued guidelines regarding various new regulatory measures, which clearly stated that a hard-line approach will be taken against defaulted PSAs and contractors. The guidelines call for strict enforcement of the Demerit Point System and referral of all suspected cases of contravening employment-related ordinances to the relevant government departments or agencies for law enforcement actions, irrespective of whether consent from workers involved has been obtained. HD has appointed its Central Monitoring Team to oversee action taken by estate staff on suspected employment-related irregularities and ensure follow-up actions are taken within two months¡¦ time.
HD has critically examined and strengthened its performance assessment mechanism of the PSAs and contractors which includes deduction of marks from their respective performance scores for every issue of Default Notice to PSAs. HD also proposes to deduct marks from the non-financial scores during the tender evaluation of service contracts for every demerit point received by tenderers. HD will submit the proposed arrangements to the Tender Committee of the Housing Authority (HA) for approval before implementation.
To tackle the hawker control problem, HA is committed to making every endeavour to maintain a hawker-free environment in all its PRH estates. Concerning the effectiveness of PSAs in tackling the hawker problem, as PSAs are not empowered to take enforcement actions against illegal hawking activities in outsourced PRH estates, HD has strengthened the workforce of its Mobile Operations Unit to assist PSAs in hawker control and will take over the responsibilities of hawker control from PSAs in case of need. HD will continue carrying out joint operations with the Police and other relevant government departments to combat illegal hawking activities in the black spots of hawkers in PRH estates according to the modality plan of Team Clean. As an on-going measure, HD staff conducts on site surprise checks for monitoring purposes.
HD has also taken proactive measures to compile a master list of the number of hawkers in various PRH estates for drawing up effective operational plans to combat hawkers. PSAs have to report to HD on the head count of hawkers through the existing Estate Return System, which will further be enhanced for establishing a central record of illegal hawking activities.
On request of the HD, the Efficiency Unit has conducted a study on the outsourcing work of the HD, which was completed in end April 2008. The Administration will keep outsourcing of PRH management under regular review in a constructive and forward-looking manner.
As shown in the various measures taken and reported in the Minute, the Administration takes the PAC¡¦s recommendations very seriously. We will continue to fully co-operate with the PAC, monitor the progress on the implementation of the recommendations, and make regular reports to the Legislative Council.
Finally, I would like to thank the PAC for its comments and recommendations. These comments and recommendations are very useful in ensuring value for money in the delivery of public services. The Administration is pleased to accept these criticisms and comments. As always, we stand ready to respond promptly. Thank you.
Ends/Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Issued at HKT 11:51
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