Page 111 of 654
11 of 654
Page 111 of 654
108
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Mr. WONG concerns matters relating to the contracting out of municipal services.
The first part of the question asks about the kinds of municipal services being contracted out, the criteria for deciding the contracting-out of services, the quality and quantity of the contracted-out services and the Council's monitoring mechanism for such services.
At present, a number of services have been contracted out by the Department.
Regarding environmental hygiene, the contracting-out services include the management of the Kennedy Town Abattoir, the cleansing arrangements for 47 markets, 161 public toilets and 29 bathhouses and part of the street cleansing service for 6 out of 11 districts in the urban area. The cleansing service for the remaining 5 districts will also be contracted out in part by stages in the next 2 years. Besides, contracts for providing high-level cleansing service (i.e. at 2 metres or above) for 22 small-scale markets, cooked-food markets and hawker bazaars have also been awarded to private contractors.
As regards the management of recreational facilities, the contracting-out services are mainly the cleansing and garden services for parks/playgrounds/indoor games halls and the maintenance of playground facilities etc.
Regarding cultural and entertainment services, the contracting-out services mainly include cleaning of venues, putting up stages and equipment in stadia and production of exhibits etc.
Moreover, contracts have also been awarded to private contractors for providing security service at Urban Council venues such as markets, parks, playgrounds and cultural centres, etc.
Approval must be sought from the relevant Select Committees before municipal services are contracted out by the Department. In deciding whether a service should be contracted out, the Council would take the following into consideration:
1. this would help cut down the Council's expenditure, while the service quality could be maintained at a reasonable standard or even be improved;
2. ...
3. there are sufficient qualified contractors in the market to undertake the work; and
the flexibility of human resources deployment could be improved. To monitor the performance of contractors, daily inspections will be conducted by staff of various district offices of the Department on areas of services which have been contracted out. Contractors whose performance is found to be unsatisfactory will immediately be asked to follow up and rectify the situation. If they fail to comply with the instructions given, the Department will issue warning letters to them and deduct the fees payable to them in accordance with the relevant contract terms. Serious cases may even lead to