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believe this is too early to forecast the timing for contracting out all cleaning work.
Let me reiterate that in supporting the motion, we have reservations for certain specific suggestions contained therein. I hope Mr. IP can take this back to the Public Health Select Committee for further discussion. It is not that after the motion is carried today, the Department proceeds to increase manpower promptly tomorrow. If that is the way to be, we will not accept it. I had a discussion with Mr. Ip and I said that the motion offered a direction for studies and content for discussion only. I said that details about enforcement should be followed up at the Public Health Select Committee. Thank you for your cooperation.
CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese): Will the original mover exercise his right of reply?
MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese): This is somewhat regrettable. My speech was quite clear. I mentioned several measures to be implemented after studies into improvements. I meant that a review should be taken to consider various options and then we could decide on additional improvement measures.
In my motion, there was no mention of contracting out all cleaning work. I never said that. I only suggested to study into the feasibility of enlarging the area of streets to be cleaned and contracting out to professional cleaning companies. I made that very clear. If Members want to know more about the contents of my speech, I would be happy to supply you with copies.
There is one other thing I want to clarify. Contracting out as mentioned in the motion is not equivalent to privatization. In fact, I have reservations for privatization and I do not agree to the Council privatizing all services. That is my personal stand. The question remains that we want to improve inadequacies of our services and contracting out to professional companies is an effective measure. So, we should consider whether it is possible to enlarge such work. The original motion uses wordings like 'or'. It calls for additional staff or more times of cleaning. I also mentioned that we should fully utilize 1778 members of the Hawker Control Force to implement this. I said that very clearly.
Therefore, there should not be any need to over worry and think we intend to increase manpower promptly. We look to reviewing our manpower situation on the basis of staff we have and to see if they have been suitably deployed. If there is a problem with manpower, there may be need for additional staff.
Except for Mr. Steven HUNG Chung-fun who has reservations on my motion or even objects to it, I have heard that most Members support it. It is not suitable for me to say more here because it is now already 6:06 pm. I just want to thank Members for their support. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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believe this is too early to forecast the timing for contracting out all cleaning work.
Let me reiterate that in supporting the motion, we have reservations for certain specific suggestions contained therein. I hope Mr. IP can take this back to the Public Health Select Committee for further discussion. It is not that after the motion is carried today, the Department proceeds to increase manpower promptly tomorrow. If that is the way to be, we will not accept it. I had a discussion with Mr. Ip and I said that the motion offered a direction for studies and content for discussion only. I said that details about enforcement should be followed up at the Public Health Select Committee. Thank you for your cooperation.
CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese):-Will the original mover exercise his right of reply?
MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-This is somewhat regrettable. My speech was quite clear. I mentioned several measures to be implemented after studies into improvements. I meant that a review should be taken to consider various options and then we could decide on additional improvement
measures.
In my motion, there was no mention of contracting out all cleaning work. I never said that. I only suggested to study into the feasibility of enlarging the area of streets to be cleaned and contracting out to professional cleaning companies. I made that very clear. If Members want to know more about the contents of my speech, I would be happy to supply you with copies.
There is one other thing I want to clarify. Contracting out as mentioned in the motion is not equivalent to privatization. In fact, I have reservations for privatization and I do not agree to the Council privatizing all services. That is my personal stand. The question remains that we want to improve inadequacies of our services and contracting out to professional companies is an effective measure. So, we should consider whether it is possible to enlarge such work. The original motion uses wordings like 'or'. It calls for additional staff or more times of cleaning. I also mentioned that we should fully utilize 1778 members of the Hawker Control Force to implement this. I said that very clearly.
Therefore, there should not be any need to over worry and think we intend to increase manpower promptly. We look to reviewing our manpower situation on the basis of staff we have and to see if they have been suitably deployed. If there is a problem with manpower, there may be need for additional staff.
Except for Mr. Steven HUNG Chung-fun who has reservations on my motion or even objects to it, I have heard that most Members support it. It is not suitable for me to say more here because it is now already 6:06 pm. I just want to thank Members for their support. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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