1965 — Page 162

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: ---I think the control over the private architect will be the same control as that of any client over his professional adviser, whether the professional adviser is a lawyer, solicitor, a doctor or an architect. If difficulty arises, which I don't anticipate, of the architects being slow, then I suppose the final resource is to get new architects. With regard to the contractors---one calls for tenders, one gets in tenders, one chooses a contractor and if that contractor goes broke, and some of them have gone broke in the last few months as a result of the banking crisis, again there is nothing very much that the client can do except to find another contractor, and this delays the work. This is why I say that neither the Chairman nor I can give any assurance that there will be no delays. All the assurance that I can give is that nothing the Public Works Department does will hold up work. We shall do all we can to speed it along.

MR. SALES: I am grateful to the Director of Public Works for his reply. We have gone over this ground before and I do not wish to labour the point, but the public interest cannot suffer and the people of Kowloon have gone on for long enough without these facilities which are badly needed as statistics have proved beyond doubt, and what I want to know, and what this Council is entitled to know, is that those who have let us down on this project before, should not be given a contract again. We were very badly let down before and we should not suffer again. The precaution that should be taken is that the same people must not be employed again.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: ---Mr. Chairman, as far as I am aware, the contractor involved in Stage I is no longer on our list.

MR. SALES: So that assurance is given to us; that the same contractor is not going to be employed on this project, because the public cannot suffer just because of the niceties of tendering of Government contracts.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: ---Mr. Chairman, I must take Mr. SALES up on that. It is not just a question of the niceties of tendering. Tendering is a system for ensuring that public money is spent fairly and properly.

MR. SALES: ---Was public money spent fairly and properly in delaying the completion of the Kowloon Tsai Swimming Pool, when the public suffered for three years despite the fact that this Council was assured time and again that the pool would be ready?

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: ---I never gave any such assurance, and no responsible officer of the Public Works Department would give an assurance that these unavoidable delays will not occur on building. Mr. SALES tries very hard to get me to "shoot my neck out" and give an assurance which I am not prepared to give. (Laughter)

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. SALES: ---If the Director of Public Works Department cannot give the taxpayer an assurance that the said taxpayer's money will be wisely spent at all times with due care, and the emphasis is on the words "due care", then it is useless for me to pursue the supplementary questioning.

MR. BERNACCHI: ---May I make a personal reference in regard to the Director of Public Works. I consider he has given the only assurances he can give to this Council and I, in fact, consider him to be the best Director of Public Works that we have had for a long while. (Applause)

MR. SALES: ---I join with Mr. BERNACCHI in that opinion of Mr. WRIGHT as a Director of Public Works, but it is because of our experience with the Department that, as Chairman of the Urban Amenities Select Committee, I feel I must protect the interest of the public in this matter---it has nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Michael WRIGHT as a person.

(10) MR. A. de O. SALES asked the following question:

Would Government agree to the construction of district halls in densely populated areas to provide covered facilities for sport and recreation and also to meet the various needs of neighbourhood schools and other organizations?

THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:

A copy of your question has already been passed to the Colonial Secretary, but it would I think assist Government in considering your proposal if it could first be amplified. Perhaps the coming meeting of the Urban Amenities Select Committee would provide a suitable opportunity.

(11) MR. A. de O. SALES asked the following question:

(a) May I ask whether Government is now prepared to consider resettling the victims of exemption orders as I advocated in the Working Party on Resettlement and Low Cost Housing?

(b) How many were evicted in this way in January/September 1965?

(c) What progress has been made in resettling the other categories listed by the Working Party?

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