Page 274 of 382
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
struction. Site formation is in progress on several sites where estates, planned to house a further 550,000, will be built as soon as the formation works are sufficiently advanced. The search for new sites, to take the programme into the 1970's continues.
6. Mr. WONG, as well as Mrs. ELLIOTT, made the point that resettlement is being held up by contractors who for one reason or another are behind time. Today we have 27 building contracts in hand as part of the Resettlement Programme, and on the majority of them progress is satisfactory. During the course of the year progress has been slow, at one time or another, on 7 of these contracts; four—all being done by the same contractor—were going so badly that in July we had to terminate the contracts and get in fresh contractors. Besides the building contracts, one road formation contract which because of delays by the contractor was likely to affect occupation of completed blocks at Ham Tin, has been taken out of his hands. At the present time progress is satisfactory on 23 out of the 27 building contracts. These delays on building contracts have affected, and still are affecting, the handing over of completed blocks and I am very conscious of the resultant difficulties faced by the Resettlement Department.
7. I cannot accept Mr. WONG's contention that there has been any injudicious choice of unsound contractors or that the Tender Board in awarding tenders adopts an unrealistic attitude. The Public Works Department maintains a list of approved contractors divided into 5 groups based on their financial resources and proved ability. The list is under continuous review and upgrading, downgrading or complete removal is going on all the time. With a restricted list of this sort the Tender Board must be presented with good and adequate reasons if the lowest tender is not to be accepted, and in my own experience I have never found the Board unwilling to accept a tender other than the lowest when good reasons are put forward. At the time when the tenders which are now giving trouble were accepted there was no reason at all to doubt the financial standing or the ability of the contractors concerned.
8. Mrs. ELLIOTT asked what penalties are enforced on dilatory contractors. To try to give a full reply would involve me in a legal discourse on the respective rights of owner and contractor in the enforcement of the contract clause dealing with liquidated damages for delay. Two weeks ago, in replying to a question from Dr. BELL, I said that I was not competent to express an opinion or advise on legal matters and I do not intend to do so now. Briefly, the position is that under certain circumstances Government has a right to claim liquidated damages—not a penalty—from dilatory contractors. Government may also, under certain circumstances, terminate a contract; but such action almost always results in long delays while the work already completed is measured up and billed to ensure that the defaulting contractor is paid what is due to him. It is also often necessary to call for new tenders for the outstanding work.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
9. Besides the possibility of terminating the contract or obtaining liquidated damages, the Government may downgrade or remove an inefficient or dilatory contractor from the Public Works Department approved list. This is done quite frequently where the circumstances of the delay warrants such action. All the action which I have referred to is of a negative nature. While it is easy enough to get a contractor to speed up when the contract is going well, there is very little positive action one can take to make a contractor go faster when he is in difficulties. But we do do everything we can to get contractors—particularly those on resettlement—to complete the work within the contract time, and where we have had to take action under the terms of the contract the resultant delays have been cut to an absolute minimum.
10. Mr. FUNG Hon-chu spoke of the time taken to complete road repairs and Dr. BELL referred to the deterioration in road and traffic conditions in the past 6 or 7 years. Conditions may well have deteriorated, but today things are very different from 1959. Vehicle registrations have gone up from about 35,000 to 86,000; the amount spent on new buildings (public and private) has increased from $300 million to $1,100 million. Sixty miles of drains were laid in 1964/65 compared with 20 miles six years ago; seventy miles of water mains were laid in the urban areas last year, and this pattern extends to all the other underground services and utilities. Six thousand trench openings were made last year; about 40% by Government and the remainder by the public utility companies. I won't bore you with any more statistics, but I suggest that there is no other city in the world which has had to cope in so short a time with so much development at such high densities; densities which have meant that virtually every service in the areas of prewar development has had to be replaced or duplicated.
11. Dr. BELL was gracious enough to concede that digging is necessary because of the tremendous development everywhere. Her main complaint is the manner of the digging and I cannot altogether disagree with her. Just as this Council is aware of, but can find no quick solution to, the problems of Hawkers and Street Cleansing, so we in the Public Works Department—as well as the Public Utility Companies—are very conscious of the often justified complaints about trenching works, but we can find no quick solution. Why is this? Partly, I suggest it is due to that lack of consideration for others to which Mr. RAFEEK referred in his speech; coupled with the absence of any desire, by those doing these trench works, to keep the job tidy, or even tidy up at the end of a day's work. A visit from a supervisor—
Page 275 of 382
382
Page 274 of 382
526
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
struction. Site formation is in progress on several sites where estates, planned to house a further 550,000, will be built as soon as the forma- tion works are sufficiently advanced. The search for new sites, to take the programme into the 1970's continues.
6. Mr. WONG, as well as Mrs. ELLIOTT, made the point that resettlement is being held up by contractors who for one reason or another are behind time. Today we have 27 building contracts in hand as part of the Resettlement Programme, and on the majority of them progress is satisfactory. During the course of the year progress has been slow, at one time or another, on 7 of these contracts; four-all being done by the same contractor-were going so badly that in July we had to terminate the contracts and get in fresh contractors. Besides the building contracts, one road formation contract which because of delays by the contractor was likely to affect occupation of completed blocks at Ham Tin, has been taken out of his hands. At the present time progress is satisfactory on 23 out of the 27 building contracts. These delays on building contracts have affected, and still are affecting, the handing over of completed blocks and I am very conscious of the resultant difficulties faced by the Resettlement Department.
7. I cannot accept Mr. WONG's contention that there has been any injudicious choice of unsound contractors or that the Tender Board in awarding tenders adopts an unrealistic attitude. The Public Works Department maintains a list of approved contractors divided into 5 groups based on their financial resources and proved ability. The list is under continuous review and upgrading, downgrading or complete removal is going on all the time. With a restricted list of this sort the Tender Board must be presented with good and adequate reasons if the lowest tender is not to be accepted, and in my own experience I have never found the Board unwilling to accept a tender other than the lowest when good reasons are put forward. At the time when the tenders which are now giving trouble were accepted there was no reason at all to doubt the financial standing or the ability of the contractors concerned.
8. Mrs. ELLIOTT asked what penalties are enforced on dilatory contractors. To try to give a full reply would involve me in a legal discourse on the respective rights of owner and contractor in the enforce- ment of the contract clause dealing with liquidated damages for delay. Two weeks ago, in replying to a question from Dr. BELL, I said that I was not competent to express an opinion or advise on legal matters and I do not intend to do so now. Briefly, the position is that under certain circumstances Government has a right to claim liquidated damages--not a penalty-from dilatory contractors. Government may also, under certain circumstances, terminate a contract; but such action almost always results in long delays while the work already completed
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
527
is measured up and billed to ensure that the defaulting contractor is paid what is due to him. It is also often necessary to call for new tenders for the outstanding work.
9. Besides the possibility of terminating the contract or obtaining liquidated damages, the Government may downgrade or remove an inefficient or dilatory contractor from the Public Works Department approved list. This is done quite frequently where the circumstances of the delay warrants such action. All the action which I have referred to is of a negative nature. While it is easy enough to get a contractor to speed up when the contract is going well, there is very little positive action one can take to make a contractor go faster when he is in difficulties. But we do do everything we can to get contractors— particularly those on resettlement-to complete the work within the contract time, and where we have had to take action under the terms of the contract the resultant delays have been cut to an absolute minimum.
10. Mr. FUNG Hon-chu spoke of the time taken to complete road repairs and Dr. BELL referred to the deterioration in road and traffic conditions in the past 6 or 7 years. Conditions may well have deterio- rated, but today things are very different from 1959. Vehicle registra- tions have gone up from about 35,000 to 86,000; the amount spent on new buildings (public and private) has increased from $300 million to $1,100 million. Sixty miles of drains were laid in 1964/65 compared with 20 miles six years ago; seventy miles of water mains were laid in the urban areas last year, and this pattern extends to all the other underground services and utilities. Six thousand trench openings were made last year; about 40% by Government and the remainder by the public utility companies. I won't bore you with any more statistics, but I suggest that there is no other city in the world which has had to cope in so short a time with so much development at such high densities; densities which have meant that virtually every service in the areas of prewar development has had to be replaced or duplicated.
11. Dr. BELL was gracious enough to concede that digging is necessary because of the tremendous development everywhere. Her main complaint is the manner of the digging and I cannot altogether disagree with her. Just as this Council is aware of, but can find no quick solution to, the problems of Hawkers and Street Cleansing, so we in the Public Works Department-as well as the Public Utility Companies are very conscious of the often justified complaints about trenching works, but we can find no quick solution. Why is this? Partly, I suggest it is due to that lack of consideration for others to which Mr. RAFEEK referred in his speech; coupled with the absence of any desire, by those doing these trench works, to keep the job tidy, or even tidy up at the end of a day's work. A visit from a supervisor—
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.