A spokesman for the Water Supplies Department (WSD) today (August 8) said that a batch of registration forms for tenants of Skylark House, Sha Kok Estate to register for free installation of flow controllers were found lost.

     In order to arrange free installation of flow controllers for tenants at Sha Kok Estate, the WSD had carried out registration for tenants at the ground floor lobby of each block of the estate. Collection and handling of the registration forms were done by staff of contractor. The registration forms completed by tenants of Skylark House during registration on July 13 were found lost. They contain simple information including flat numbers of the households involved, daytime contact numbers (if provided), household size (if provided) as well as the scheduled timeslot of the flow controller installation service. The incident involves about 80 households. Earlier, the WSD was informed by a member of the public that he has found the lost forms. The WSD is now in the process of contacting him to get back the lost forms.

     The WSD is very concerned about the incident and has reported it to the police immediately as well as liaised with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data for follow-up action. The WSD has also notified the concerned households of the incident and has suspended the flow controller installation works at Skylark House, Sha Kok Estate with immediate effect for two months to prevent scammers from using the lost information to pose as WSD or its contractor's staff.

     The WSD is conducting a detailed investigation into the incident. If the incident involves negligence or misconduct, the WSD will treat it in a serious manner. The WSD will review relevant work flow and make improvements accordingly to prevent reoccurrence of similar incidents.

     The WSD sincerely apologises to all the affected households.

Ends/Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Issued at HKT 23:16

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