Together with the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam, and the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, I visited Kwun Tong Mansion, a building more than 50 years old that has been renovated with subsidies granted under the Operation Building Bright (OBB) scheme. The common areas of the building, including the elevator, lobby, corridor, staircase and rooftop, have taken on an entirely new look after the renovation. The residents told us about their experience in preparing the building repair works and said that they are happy with the improved living environment, building safety, hygiene and appreciation in the property price.
Dilapidated old buildings in Hong Kong have always been a complex issue. At present, there are about 6,000 buildings aged 50 years or above, among which 2,590 buildings are categorised as “varied” or “poor”. The number is expected to increase as time goes by. On the one hand, owners are responsible for the repair and maintenance of private buildings to ensure public safety as well as their own. On the other hand, many owners of old buildings, especially the elderly, are not able to undertake necessary building renovation work because of their lack of knowledge of building maintenance or the huge costs involved, making the issue even harder to resolve.
As a special measure amid the financial tsunami, the OBB initiative was jointly launched by the Government, the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) in 2009 to provide subsidies and one-stop technical assistance to owners of dilapidated private buildings for repair and maintenance works. The OBB aims to achieve the dual objectives of improving building safety and creating more job opportunities for the construction sector. With a total allocation of up to $3.5 billion, more than 3,000 old buildings have been granted subsidies and the living environment of more than 150,000 households has thus been improved, creating more than 48,700 job opportunities for the construction sector. The scheme has ceased to accept applications as the renovation works for the subsidised buildings are nearing completion. Nevertheless, the Government and relevant organisations will continue to render support to property owners in need to carry out repair and maintenance works through other schemes.
Meanwhile, we are most concerned about suspected bid-rigging cases relating to building maintenance and renovation projects. As some property owners might lack relevant knowledge and experience of large maintenance projects, and deficiencies occur in building management, these projects - which often involve huge expenses - create opportunities for crime.
The problem of bid-rigging is complicated, and involves not only problems with the management of the buildings but also corruption. Therefore we are working with the URA to see how the technical support to general property owners can be enhanced in order to minimise the risk of bid-rigging. The URA has earned invaluable experience through the OBB. For example, since the implementation of new tendering arrangement under the OBB in 2013, it has provided property owners with an open and fair tendering platform free from intervention. Bidders’ confidence has hence been boosted and they are encouraged to participate actively in the tendering. As a result, property owners should be able to find a reasonable and fair tender among the many returned competitive tenders. Meanwhile, the URA and the HKHS can arrange independent consultants to provide owners of buildings participating in the OBB with an estimate of maintenance costs for reference, so that they can assess whether the tender prices are comparable with market levels before selecting the most suitable tender. According to the URA, the new tendering arrangement and the independent consulting service have borne fruit – the number of interested bidders increased by two to three times when compared to the past; also, the quotations were closer to those estimated by independent consultants commissioned by the URA. Additionally, we will work closely with the URA to explore additional measures for providing technical support to property owners, with an aim to minimise the risk of bid-rigging. We already have some ideas in mind, and a plan will be announced in due course.
To effectively avoid bid-rigging, owners’ active participation in building maintenance projects, including selecting professional consultants, defining the scope of maintenance works, inviting tenders, evaluating tenders and handling follow-up matters, is essential. Taking Kwun Tong Mansion, which we visited last Friday, as an example, the members of its owners’ corporation were very devoted to the preparation of maintenance works. They even conducted site visits to the bidders after receiving the tenders to make sure that the companies were legitimately operating. In fact, offenders in previous bid-rigging cases often took advantage of owners’ indifference and inexperience in building management. With owners’ efforts, together with the Government’s enhancement in education and technical support, I believe we can achieve better public safety through improved maintenance works on old local buildings while also avoiding bid-rigging.
22 November, 2015
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