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think the Department should indeed shoulder this responsibility. Mr. Chairman, I should be grateful if a reply can be given to my questions.
MR. SUEN KAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Lai asks questions related to the Workmen II who are street cleansers. Well, for Workmen II, they are staff of the Department. They are part of the civil service, so to speak. And what Mr. LAI has just mentioned was a trial scheme under which we contract out cleansing duties for certain districts to private cleansing companies. So this is a different thing. When we talk about month-to-month employment terms, we are talking about civil servants receiving monthly salaries. When these staff were recruited, they would be informed of the entry requirements, the regulations they have to comply with and the job specifications. But of course, whether they actually observe these requirements is another thing. So I think the monitory mechanism is most important.
MR. LEE KWOK-KEUNG (in Cantonese):—Just now in the reply Mr. SUEN refers to legal, ethical and human factors. With regard to human factor, I think the Department has been doing very well already. But with regard to legal stipulations, I think the Department can do more. In paragraph 4 of the reply, it is mentioned that the Department will continue to review and improve the attendance register and monitoring mechanism. In view of the serious problem of staff slacking off, I wonder if the Department will set a time-table for the completion of a review on the monitoring system for discussion and consideration by the Select Committees concerned?
Mr. SUEN KAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):—I promise that a review will be conducted. As to the final mechanism and measures to be adopted to monitor the work performance of our staff, it all depends on the results of the review. The review will be conducted jointly with the Public Health Select Committee.
2. MS. JENNIFER CHOW KIT-BING asked the following question (in Cantonese):—According to media reports, unlicensed hawkers are often selling pets bred by illegal breeding farms (e.g. cats and dogs) in busy districts such as Mong Kok, and some members of the public suspect that this situation may affect public health since these small animals are more likely to carry germs which would infect buyers and spectators.
I would like to ask:
(a) Has the Department investigated whether such pets bred by illegal farms without supervision are more prone to be infected with germs?
(b) Does the Department have any statistics on such illegal hawkers? Is the problem serious?
(c) When such pets are seized during law enforcement actions, how would the Department handle the case?
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