4.27
The maintenance and minor improvement of Services establishments is co-ordinated by a Senior Maintenance Surveyor and again is divided into three contract areas, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Territories and administered through one depot to each area, dealing predominantly with army establishments, and a fourth depot serving the Royal Navy and R.A.F. establishments. Each depot is controlled by a Maintenance Surveyor assisted by depot technical officers and supporting supervisory staff of clerks of works and foremen together with clerical staff. Direct labour is employed in the execution of some of the work on Services establishments. The Branch is also responsible for roads, water supplies, sewage disposal and playing fields within military areas.
4.28
Scheduled maintenance programmes were carried out on Government buildings and leased buildings and day-to-day maintenance and redecoration of quarters was carried out as necessary. Total expenditure on this work amounted to $18,976,000. Similar work was carried out on Services establishments and the portion carried out by contract amounted to $19,537,000.
4.29
A total of 37 major and approximately 300 minor items of alterations, additions and improvements to Government buildings were executed at a cost of $1,311,900. Work of a similar nature carried out in Services establishments amounted to $5,560,000.
4.30
Works were executed by three triennial building maintenance contracts which were extended until September 1976 on a metric basis. There were also 27 specialist contracts and 7 triennial cleaning contracts.
4.31
Other items of work undertaken by the Maintenance Branch included minor security and defence works and items for other departments ordered on the Maintenance Contracts. Surveys and reports were made on several properties acquired by Government on lease.
4.32
Regular inspections were made by the Building Supervisor and his staff of those offices and non-departmental quarters for whose cleaning, watching and general management the Maintenance Branch is responsible. The value of work carried out under the cleaning contracts during the year amount to $2,721,000. The Branch is also responsible for payment of electricity and gas bills in offices shared by departments and non-departmental quarters, and for ensuring that economy measures affecting electricity consumption are enforced in these premises.
4.33
During the year the preparatory work to permit the use of electronic data processing for the calculation of contractor's accounts was completed and it was proposed to let the next series of contracts for maintenance works on the basis of computerised accounting procedures.
4.34
Little change in staffing levels was experienced during the year. Although the re-phasing of some capital works projects permitted the level of supervisory staff to be maintained, the completion and leasing of additional buildings has increased the number of premises under the care of the Branch and the vacancies in supervisory staff grades result in maintenance work continuing to be under-supervised.
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