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Supervised public toilet but no water outsourcing supervision to be reviewed

2020-04-24T07:04:24.663Z


From time to time, government projects are contracted out by the contractor, but outsourcing contracts will be awarded if the price is low for a long time, and sometimes the quality will vary. On Tuesday (21st), a member of the Legislative Council received a complaint from the neighborhood that the sanitation of public toilets was renovated


01 point of view

Written by: Review Editor

2020-04-24 15:00

Last update date: 2020-04-24 15:00

From time to time, government projects are contracted out by the contractor, but outsourcing contracts will be awarded if the price is low for a long time, and sometimes the quality will vary. On Tuesday (21st), a member of the Legislative Council received a complaint from the neighborhood, saying that after the renovation of the public toilets, the sanitary situation did not seem to have been renovated-the appearance was gorgeous, but unfortunately there was no water. Public toilets may seem like a trivial matter in the community, but from the perspective of the government ’s outsourcing system, it is a major event that has plagued Hong Kong for many years. Where is the public money used? Why is the government outsourcing "mermaid"?

Tian Beichen said in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" that he distributed masks to stall owners at the Xiangche Street Market today, but received complaints from the neighborhood that there was no water supply for public toilets. (Profile picture / Photograph by Liang Pengwei)

"Waterless Public Toilet" Exposure System Issues

Tian Beichen, a member of the Legislative Council, pointed out that the design and cleanliness of the public toilets on Xiangche Street should be the responsibility of outsourcers. They believed that the public toilets were decorated brightly and the materials used were first-rate, but the situation that the public toilets were dry had continued for a week. The daily cleaning only relies on the cleaners to "retain water" and the citizens self-discipline to flush the toilets. The hygiene situation makes the nearby residents worry. Tian Beichen strongly criticized the relevant outsourcing project as "palace-style decoration, bagasse-grade support".

The problem of insufficient follow-up by the government to contractors has continued for many years. Whether it is a contract or a non-engineering contract, the government's ability to follow up the supervision needs to be improved. In 2007, Audit investigated the outsourced environmental hygiene services of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and pointed out that although the FEHD will evaluate the contractor ’s performance based on the monthly reports submitted by the district offices, the reports often give a "good" overall rating, which may not reflect the reality. . Unfortunately, more than ten years later, there is still much room for improvement. Perhaps as Tian Beichen said, the government outsourcing the bidder with the lowest price won the bid. Even if the contractor did not perform as expected, the government could only offer persuasion. Lack of strict penalties and services rely solely on the self-discipline of businessmen, and the quality is difficult to guarantee.

Judging from the "little thing" of the public toilet on Xiangche Street, the government still has to work harder in monitoring the project. (Photo / Photo by Cai Zhengbang)

Did you do poorly this time?

The government is not active in following up on the construction of public toilets. For contractors who are not performing as expected, the penalties have not been seen to promote improvement. In the renovation of public toilets, the construction of many public toilets has been delayed in recent years, and the government's monitoring efforts have been insufficient. The seven public toilet projects between 2016 and 2018 were delayed by 1 to 11 months due to the contractor ’s unsatisfactory performance or slow construction. Although Audit has recommended that government departments should closely monitor the progress, from the "little thing" of Xiangche Street public toilets, the government still has to work harder in monitoring the project.

As for the supervision of service contracts, the government's "point deduction system" also has limited deterrence. Government departments currently using outsourced services can theoretically issue a default notice to the contractor who violated the contract, and can also suspend payment or deduct monthly service fees. The contractor will be deducted one point every time he receives a default notice. If a contractor is deducted three points within 36 months, his bid within five years will not be considered. However, referring to the figures provided by the Food and Health Bureau in reply to Members on Wednesday (22nd), from 2015 to February 2020, the FEHD has only issued three default notices to cleansing contractors for more than four years. This means that the strength of all contractors in Hong Kong has not been triggered, nor has it been able to trigger a “banned” penalty. Whether such performance reflects the actual quality of the contractor is still questionable.

Refer to the figures provided by the Food and Health Bureau in reply to Members on Wednesday (22nd).

It is true that punishment comes first, and it is hard to say that it is the best way to maintain outsourcing services. But in business talk, there is no serious punishment for default, and government supervision has repeatedly rated it well. How can contractors improve their motivation? To improve the current situation, the government should take a two-pronged approach, re-examine whether the criteria for issuing default notices are too "hand tight", and reorganize the government-supervised rating standards so that contractors with mixed performance can be documented and well-detailed detailed descriptions can be provided to departments in the future During the bid evaluation, the true strength of the contractor can be inspected, so that those with lower prices will not affect the service quality.

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01 point of view

Tsuen Wan Public Toilet Design 01 Perspective

Source: hk1

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