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1. Quality Public Housing Construction Awards

2. Democrats to seek Hunghom inquiry

3. Disclosing hub bid figures 'not in the public interest'

4. Adviser to project bidder quits

1. Quality Public Housing Construction Awards
Hong Kong Government, 4 December 2004

Housing Department contractors are required to employ more trade-tested workers to raise the quality of public housing construction and maintenance works, the Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Housing), Mr Leung Chin-man, said.

Speaking at the Quality Public Housing Construction and Maintenance Awards 2004 (The Awards) Prize Presentation Ceremony today (December 4), Mr Leung said that contractors bidding for new construction contracts were required to employ trade-tested workers in 28 major trades.

"Of these major trades, full employment of trade-tested workers are required for 17 trades," Mr Leung said.

For maintenance works, contractors bidding for major works are fully required to employ trade-tested works since April last year. It is expected that this requirement will be expanded to cover minor maintenance works by the end of 2005.

"To ensure the quality and professional ethics of sub-contractors, Housing Department contractors are required to employ sub-contractors registered under the Voluntary Subcontractor Registration Scheme when bidding for all contracts including maintenance, construction, foundation, demolition and civil engineering works," he said.

On the other hand, Mr. Leung said, the Housing Department had introduced the "Dispute Resolution Advisory System" for all building and foundation works contracts to avoid unnecessary delays caused by disputes.

Since last year, the Housing Department has commissioned consultancy to conduct customer satisfaction survey on replumbing and redecoration works. So far, surveys on 31 projects have been completed to provide references for reviews and improvements in future.

"It is encouraging to note that the overall scores rated by our tenants in seven replumbing and redecoration projects completed this year reached 74.5 marks," Mr Leung said.

A new customer service training course for workers has been established by the Construction Industry Training Authority in conjunction with the Housing Department to introduce quality service culture into the maintenance industry. Over 2,000 workers and supervisors have completed their training during the past three years.

Co-organisers of the Awards include Hong Kong Construction Association, Hong Kong Federation of Electrical & Mechanical Contractors Ltd., Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, Construction Industry Training Authority and Vocational Training Council.

At today's ceremony, 31 contractors, five supervisors and 22 workers received their awards. Awards were also presented to one Outstanding Building Project, one Outstanding Piling Project and three projects with the best site safety record.

Members of the construction industry are welcome to share the valuable experiences of the winners at the HA/HD website (www.housingauthority.gov.hk) from early next month.

2. Democrats to seek Hunghom inquiry
KLAUDIA LEE, SCMP 4 December 2004

The pro-democracy camp will move a motion at the Legislative Council housing panel meeting on Monday demanding a select committee inquiry into whether any officials should bear responsibility for the Hunghom Peninsula saga.

Democratic Party legislator James To Kun-sun will move the motion on behalf of the pro-democracy camp, said vice-chairman Lee Wing-tat yesterday after the camp's weekly Friday meeting.

Their call follows uproar over the developers' announcement this week that they would pull down the estate, built as subsidised housing but never occupied, to build luxury flats.

Mr Lee said they were confident the motion would be passed by the housing panel. Once it was adopted, the democrats would have to follow up by putting the proposal to the House Committee on Friday.

Their proposed areas of investigation include the process by which the government sold Hunghom Peninsula to developers, why the government has not considered buying back the buildings, and whether it knew when making the sale that the developers would tear down the buildings.

"We also want to know what action the government plans to take to solve the problem now," f Mr Lee said.

The flats, built for sale under the Home Ownership Scheme, were sold to Sun Hung Kai Properties and New World Development at what was widely considered the bargain price of $864 million in land premiums. The plan to pull down the seven blocks, comprising 2,470 flats, sparked outrage.

The decision to call for a select committee inquiry was backed by the Article 45 Concern Group and the Federation of Trade Unions, but both the Liberal Party and the Alliance opposed the proposal.

Lau Kong-wah, of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, said the party had reservations about the establishment of a select committee and would make a decision only after considering the arguments put by Mr To at the housing panel on Monday.

3. Disclosing hub bid figures 'not in the public interest'
LEU SIEW YING in Meizhou and GARY CHEUNG, SCMP 4 December 2004

Disclosing the financial details of the three shortlisted proposals for developing the West Kowloon cultural district would hurt public interest, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said yesterday.

Mr Tsang said the offers put forward in the proposals must be kept confidential during negotiations between the government and the bidders. "Otherwise, it would weaken the government's bargaining power," he said.

Officials have said that the government's hand would be weakened if contenders knew the financial details of their rivals' bids.

Mr Tsang's remarks in Meizhou , northeast Guangdong, where he is attending a trade symposium, came as the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong were planning to urge the government to disclose the bidders' information. Legislators will make their call at Friday's meeting of the Legislative Council's House Committee.

Mr Tsang said disclosing bidding information would also make future bidders unwilling to provide sensitive information and in the end the public would be the loser.

"We have very clear procedures and the price and assessment will be handled with great care," he said.

Mr Tsang called on the public to give the government their full confidence because it had a track record of handling procurements very strictly and carefully.

"We have a team of high-ranking civil servants looking at these documents. We must trust them to do their job," he said.

But DAB legislator Lau Kong-wah said the government would lose its credibility if it refused to disclose the financial details of the shortlisted proposals.

Democratic Party vice-chairman Lee Wing-tat said he was not convinced by the chief secretary's argument that keeping the information secret would protect the public interest.

Sun Hung Kai Properties executive director Alfred So Chung-keung said it would be a great loss to Hong Kong society if the arts hub project, which was expected to generate economic benefits of $216 billion over 50 years, were shelved. Dynamic Star International, a Sun Hung Kai Properties and Cheung Kong (Holdings) joint venture, is one of the three shortlisted bidders for the project.

Mr So said he respected the plan by some activists to stage a march against the government's handling of the bidding process on January 1. "But I hope people give us more constructive views," he said.

4. Adviser to project bidder quits
GARY CHEUNG, SCMP 4 December 2004

A retired senior official working for a subsidiary of Henderson Land Development quit yesterday as a cultural adviser for the property giant's bid for the West Kowloon cultural district project.

The company, Hong Kong Ferry, said it had also decided not to involve Elaine Chung Lai-kwok in any work relating to the project during the bidding process. Ms Chung joined the company as director of business development in April.

Ms Chung's decision followed clarification by Secretary for Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping that she was not allowed to take part in the bidding process for the arts hub project.

Henderson Land is one of the three shortlisted bidders for the arts hub project.

Ms Chung is said to have good connections with museums overseas thanks to her position as director of urban services between 1997 and 1999. She served as a cultural adviser for Henderson Land's bid for the arts hub project and promoted the company's proposal at a press conference in October.

Mr Wong emphasised that the retired official, whose role in the promotion of the proposal for developing the cultural project had sparked attention from the media and lawmakers, was not allowed to take part directly or indirectly in the bidding process.

"She is not allowed to take part in any publicity activities relating to the project or serve as spokesperson for any bidder," he said.

The minister's remarks came two days after he said during a question-and-answer session in the Legislative Council that the current job of the former civil servant was consistent with the scope of her approved post-retirement employment.

Mr Wong said yesterday the previous approval for her post-retirement job did not cover any work relating to the arts hub project but he declined to comment on whether she had violated any regulation.