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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
Council markets (old and new, temporary and permanent, large and small) all providing various commodities and foodstuffs for residents in the urban area. In 1997, there were 2 important issues concerning the Council's markets. The first one was the criticism passed upon us by the Audit Department (now known as the Audit Commission), and the second one was undoubtedly the recent outbreak of the bird flu.
Regarding the criticism contained in the Report of the Director of Audit, I have never seen, during my several years' service in the Council, a more comprehensive document which listed out in great detail all the market problems that the Council had dealt with since the 70's. The Report gave an account of the implementation of the Council's policies by the Urban Services Department and commented on various problems, including the construction, operation, and management of markets. It pointed out incisively that numerous problems existed in the Council's markets which call for imperative improvements. Ms. Elaine CHUNG Lai-kwok, who had just taken up the post of Director of Urban Services then, engaged in a tit-for-tat argument at a meeting with the Deputy Director of Audit. Such a scene was rarely seen in this Council. I could not make out why Ms. CHUNG, who had newly assumed office, could get hold of so much information on markets and managed to refute with ease each of the Audit Department's accusations. Nevertheless, the various problems pointed out by the Audit Department actually existed. Afterwards, those problems were discussed in meetings of our Select Committee, and the resolution was to be implemented. When those important issues were referred back to the Select Committee for discussion, the Department often employed the tactic of playing down the problem. With regard to certain issues brought up in the Report of the Director of Audit, the banning of non-retail stalls in markets, for instance, no positive action has yet been taken by the Urban Services Department. On many occasions, the Urban Services Department kept on saying that they would improve, but it turned out that the problem dragged on with no improvement at all.
The second issue is the bird flu incident, which has aroused grave public concern over the hygiene conditions of existing Urban Council markets. There are clarion calls from our Chief Executive Mr. TUNG and the general public for improvements in the hygiene conditions of existing markets. The markets are now cleaned 4 times daily instead of twice a day. Last week, the Director of Urban Services also ordered a second round full clean-up of the poultry stalls, spending about $800,000 to hire cleansing contractors for the job. However, it was reported that the Urban Services Department was still not satisfied with the clean-up results. Some of the cleansing contractors even quit the job as they could not figure out what exactly were the requirements of the Urban Services Department. I fully agree that our markets need a clean-up. But in this cleaning-up exercise, the Urban Services Department once again revealed its weakness of taking only palliative measures to deal with problems instead of solving them at the root. Why didn't the Department pay attention to the
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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
Council markets (old and new, temporary and permanent, large and small, all providing various commodities and foodstuffs for residents in urban area. In 1997, there were 2 important issues concerning the Council's markets. The first one was the criticism passed upon us by the Audit Department (now known as the Audit Commission), and the second one was undoubtedly the recent outbreak of the bird flu.
Regarding the criticism contained in the Report of the Director of Audit, I have never seen, during my several years' service in the Council, a more comprehensive document which listed out in great details all the market problems that the Council had dealt with since the 70's. The Report gave an account of the implementation of the Council's policies by the Urban Services Department and commented on various problems, including the construction, operation and management of markets. It pointed out incisively that numerous problems existed in the Council's markets which call for imperative improvements. Ms. Elaine CHUNG Lai-kwok, who had just taken up the post of Director of Urban Services then, engaged in a tit-for-tat argument at a meeting with the Deputy Director of Audit. Such a scene was rarely seen in this Council. I could not make out why Ms. CHUNG, who had newly assumed office, could get hold of so much information on markets and managed to refute with ease each of the Audit Department's accusations. Nevertheless, the various problems pointed out by the Audit Department actually existed. Afterwards those problems were discussed in meetings of our Select Committee and the resolution was to be implemented. When those important issues were referred back to the Select Committee for discussion, the Department often employed the tactic of playing down the problem. With regard to certain issues brought up in the Report of the Director of Audit, the banning of non-retail stalls in markets for instance, no positive action has yet been taken by the Urban Services Department. On many occasions, the Urban Services Department kept on saying that they would improve, but it turned out that the problem dragged on with no improvement at all.
The second issue is the bird flu incident which has aroused grave public concern over the hygiene conditions of existing Urban Council markets. There are clarion calls from our Chief Executive Mr. TUNG and the general public for improvements in the hygiene conditions of existing markets. The markets are now cleaned 4 times daily instead of twice a day. Last week the Director of Urban Services also ordered a second round full clean-up of the poultry stalls, spending about $800,000 to hire cleansing contractors for the job. However, it was reported that the Urban Services Department was still not satisfied with the clean-up results. Some of the cleansing contractors even quitted the job as they could not figure out what exactly were the requirements of the Urban Services Department. I fully agree that our markets need a clean-up. But in this cleaning-up exercise, the Urban Services Department once again revealed its weakness of taking only palliative measures to deal with problems instead of solving them at the root. Why didn't the Department pay attention to the
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