Origins at: HKK 360.13
SECRET
布致司 /Action 香 港 Para) 華置
Information only / Action. on
厘 道
本署檔號 OUR REF:
SCR L/M 25/81
си
*** YOUR Ref :
EF
RELATED IN HL31717 #O. 51 12 MAY 1981
HIR 040/1
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
All Willow Fri.
pril, 1981
Mr seyt ole
193.5.
f.i.
of 12.5
RD Clift Esq
Juk
Hong Kong & General Department
FC/O
No Mas B
INDEX
PA
Enter
CU writed for My State
18
c.c Future File
Г
215-forid
Masis I
Yee
HOUSING AUTHORITY CONTRACTS STRETCHING BEYOND 1997
We have unexpectedly come up against a problem where the shadow of 1997 affects contracts issued by the Housing Authority, a statutory body with appointed members chaired by the Secretary for Housing.
2.
The Housing Authority, which is responsible for a massive programme for building public housing estates most of which are in the New Territories, has long had the practice of arranging contracts for the supply of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) to these estates for a period of 15 years. Contracts have to be put out to tender well in advance of the completion date of the estate; the 15-year period then starts from the time of completion. This means that tenders are now being solicited for estates which will only be completed in late 1982 or later; consequently the 15-year period of these contracts will stretch beyond the terminal date of the Lease. Indeed, two such contracts have already been signed, with theoretical termination dates in October 1997, without anyone realising what was happening.
3.
or to
Our options are to change the contracts to a shorter period of, say, 10 years; to have contracts for a steadily diminishing period of the remainder of the Lease; continue as before. The first option would only postpone the problem for a maximum of five years. Furthermore, both it and the second option would draw attention to the 1997 date in a particularly unhelpful way by suggesting that we accepted its finality. That leaves the third option of going on as
before.
4.
His
We consulted the Attorney General about the legality of a statutory corporation signing a contract in the New Territories which stretches beyond the end of the Lease. advice is that such a contract can legally be issued. could not be fulfilled (e.g. if, hypothetically, the Government ceased to exist in 1997) then there could be a claim for refund
If it
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/contd.