Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Following is a question by the Hon Tang Ka-piu and a written reply by Secretary for Housing, Ms Winnie Ho, in the Legislative Council today (Feb 25):
Question:
Some residents of On Kay Court in Ngau Tau Kok have reflected that the works consultancy firm engaged by On Kay Court for the major maintenance works of the housing estate is the same as the one engaged by Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, and the persons in charge of the firm are now involved in judicial proceedings, thus plunging the works at On Kay Court into a standstill and a supervision vacuum and arousing residents’ concern about safety and works progress. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the Government and the Urban Renewal Authority will, in view of the situation concerning the maintenance works at On Kay Court above, consider intervening by adopting the following measures: (i) deploying qualified civil servants or designating independent professionals as works consultants; (ii) entrusting qualified third-party organisations to monitor the work of the existing works consultancy firm or introducing other special options as support, and (iii) if it is necessary to engage a new contractor, stepping up the monitoring of the new contractor to ensure that the services it provides are professional, safe and compliant with the law and prevent the works from being left uncompleted;
(2) as it has been learnt that the Owners’ Corporation (OC) of On Kay Court will have to hold a general meeting regarding its major maintenance arrangements, but some residents are worried that the inadequate participation of certain owners (especially non-occupier owners who have leased their units) will affect the quorum of the meeting and the decision-making progress, whether the Government has conducted any assessment in this regard and adopted any measures to assist the housing estate in relaunching the works;
(3) whether the Independent Checking Unit under the Housing Bureau has participated in the screening of works contractors and consultancy firms by OCs of housing estates developed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), as well as the assessment and monitoring of the business competence and integrity of the relevant companies;
(4) whether it plans to undertake reforms in order to strengthen the Housing Bureau’s support for housing estates under the Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) and the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) in the areas of building management and maintenance works or even directly intervene in these aspects; if so, of the specific measures and the timetable; if not, the reasons for that;
(5) of the total number of TPS and HOS estates in Hong Kong which have received a repair order issued by the Government under the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme in the past five years, with a breakdown by maintenance works progress (i.e. works in progress, works completed and works not yet commenced); of the number of housing estates among them which have engaged the same works consultancy firm and contractors as Wang Fuk Court;
(6) as HA possesses property ownership in some HOS and TPS estates, whether HA will assume a more leading role in building maintenance works projects in the future by exercising its voting rights as an owner and directly participating in the relevant decision-making process; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(7) regarding those HOS estates which have been completed for quite some time but have not yet formed their OCs, whether the Government will take targeted follow-up measures and initiate the provision of legal, administrative and technical support for them, so as to expedite their formation of OCs and in turn facilitate the maintenance and repair of such housing estates;
(8) of the total amount of subsidies offered to eligible owners every year since the introduction of the Mandatory Building Inspection Subsidy Scheme; and
(9) whether it has inquired into the number of housing estates which have received works consultancy services from the works consultancy firm involved in the major maintenance project of Wang Fuk Court in the past two years, and whether those projects have applied for and received government funding; if so, of the housing estates involved; as the works of those housing estates may be plunged into a standstill as in the case of On Kay Court, of the support and response arrangements put in place by the Government in this regard?
Reply:
President,