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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Chin-shek and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (February 22):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of cases since March 2004 in which the service contractors engaged by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Government Logistics Department, the Government Property Agency, the Housing Department, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Hospital Authority:
(i) were ruled by the court to have contravened the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57), the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282), the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 485) or the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115); and
(ii) were penalised by the departments/organisations concerned for failure to honour their pledges in the tender documents concerning the employment terms of non-skilled workers; and
(b) provide a list, by the names of the contractors involved in these cases, on the nature of the services they usually undertake, the number and total value of contracts for the public services they are undertaking, the number and details of cases in which they have been ruled, since March 2004, to have contravened the above ordinances or reneged on their pledges in the tender documents, as well as the penalties consequently imposed on them?
Reply:
Madam President,
Our reply to the question raised by Hon LAU Chin-shek is as follows:
(a) Since March 2004 to January 2006, the number of cases that the service contractors of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), Government Logistics Department (GLD), Government Property Agency (GPA), Housing Department (HD), Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the Hospital Authority (HA) -
(i) were ruled by the court to have contravened the Employment Ordinance (EO) (Cap. 57), the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (ECO) (Cap. 282), the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (MPFSO) (Cap. 485) or the Immigration Ordinance (IO) (Cap. 115) are at Annex 1.
(ii) were penalised by the departments/organisation concerned for failure to honour their pledges in the tender documents concerning the employment terms of non-skilled workers are at Annex 2.
(b) According to the provisions in the contract document, the contractors bidding for the service contracts have only given consent for the Government to use the obtained information in respect of conviction records and records of breaches of employment conditions for the purpose of tender evaluation and contract administration. The Government cannot disclose such information without the contractor's consent. Otherwise there may be legal consequences. For this reason, the Government cannot provide the names of the contractors with the records of convictions and breaches of employment conditions. The Government can only provide the following related information for Members' reference.
Of the five government departments and the Hospital Authority, only FEHD, LCSD and HD have their contractors being convicted under the relevant Ordinances or penalised by the concerned department for breach of employment conditions from March 2004 to January 2006. The relevant information is at Annex 3.
The nature of offences, number and the amount of fine/service fees deducted for defaults in respect of the cases under the relevant Ordinances and breaches of employment conditions are at Annex 4. Apart from the imposed fine or deduction of service fees for the defaults on the contractors concerned as shown in the Annex, one contract was terminated for reason of the convictions. The tender offer for Government service contracts of six contractors having more than three convictions will not be considered under the mandatory requirement for tender assessment.
Ends/Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:16
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