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mix of professional staff of various disciplines for specific duties such as architectural design, structural and geotechnical engineering, building service engineering, property maintenance and quantity surveying. Coupled with its discretion to engage private consultants to cope with fluctuating workload or to meet specialist requirements, A.S.D. is confident that it can continue to cope with U.C.'s construction programme.
MR. AMBROSE CHEUNG WING-SUM (in Cantonese):—I have a follow-up question. I ask this question because I want to find a way to enhance the efficiency of construction of U.C. facilities as well as effectiveness of cost control. I am glad to hear that Mr. Wong King-cheung has reservations over the reply. The reply from the Department clearly gives me an impression that it is giving an irrelevant answer and is evading the question, it also shows that the Department is complacent. Very often residents ask why improvements are not found in the work carried out by the Urban Council and the Urban Services Department, this is due to baseless complacency. By comparing U.C. projects with projects of private developers or even the Regional Council in terms of design, planning, construction and tendering, we do not see any standards which can prove that the existing control mechanism is satisfactory as stated in the reply. Mr. Wong has just said in another reply that 15 out of 20 projects suffered from slippages. My follow-up question is, I don't want to give trouble to our colleagues, but can Mr. WONG consider conducting a comprehensive review of this problem in the Capital Works Select Committee to find ways to shorten the time for planning, design, tendering and construction so as to achieve effective control over time schedule and cost, and submit a review report to the Council?
MR. WONG KING-CHEUNG (in Cantonese):—I wish to thank Mr. Ambrose CHEUNG for not giving trouble to the colleagues. In fact, the Capital Works Select Committee is already doing something, for example in its September meeting, the committee has asked the Architectural Services Department to submit a paper detailing the existing allocation of A.S.D. resources, as well as whether the Urban Council has the authority to employ contractors from outside for U.C. projects. Such kinds of work are proceeding, it is hoped that a comprehensive review can be conducted in the near future. Concerning slippage of construction projects, I believe that members do raise questions about why there are slippages when they discuss about the projects at other Select Committee meetings. Members may not be satisfied with the reply, but I can promise Mr. Ambrose CHEUNG that I will follow up the issue in the Capital Works Select Committee, and I hope an answer will come up very soon.
8 MISS ADA WONG Ying-kay asked the following question (in Cantonese);—// is understood that at present, for all performances of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, a few musicians are personally responsible for packing, moving and loading of musical instruments, including large percussion instruments. I would like to ask:
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