Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (June 15):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the particulars of the term contracts awarded by the Highways Department ("HyD") for road maintenance and administration in the current financial year and those awarded last time, including geographical coverage, the names of contractors as well as the values and periods of the contracts;
(b) of the criteria for determining the periods and geographical coverage of the above contracts;
(c) whether such contracts have provided that HyD may terminate a contract when the contractor's performance is unsatisfactory; if so, whether HyD has invoked the relevant provisions;
(d) whether HyD has monitored if the progress of outsourced road maintenance works meet the contract requirements; if it has, of the respective numbers of road maintenance works which proceeded on schedule and which experienced delays in the past five years, as well as the maximum and average numbers of days of delay; and
(e) of the number of complaints about traffic congestion arising from the delays of such works lodged by District Council members, motorists and the public in the past five years, together with the number of occasions on which HyD issued warnings to or imposed fines on contractors for the postponement of the dates of completion of works?
Reply:
Madam President,
The Highways Department (HyD) has not awarded any contracts for road maintenance and management so far in the current fiscal year (2005/06), but awarded a total of 23 such contracts in the past six fiscal years (1999/2000 to 2004/05). The geographical coverage, the names of contractors, the values and contract periods of these contracts are listed at Annex.
There are basically two types of road maintenance contracts, namely area contract and high speed road (HSR) contract. The service areas of area contract and HSR contract are delineated by the District Council boundaries and high speed road boundaries respectively. The coverage of each contract varies according to the size of the districts covered and the resources required for maintenance. The contract period is usually three to four years to facilitate the contractor to get familiar with the works and invest in equipment. Too short a contract period will increase the average fixed costs and disrupt the continuity of maintenance works. The recently awarded Contract No. 20/HY/2004 however covers a period of eight years. This is because the contract has adopted a Public Private Partnership approach. The intention is to provide a longer contract period so as to encourage the contractor to make heavier investment in equipment and management resources, resulting in higher efficiency and quality.
The contracts listed at Annex expressly provided that the HyD has the right to terminate a contract when the performance of the contractor is unsatisfactory. So far, no contract has been terminated for this reason.
The HyD has been closely monitoring the progress of road maintenance works under these contracts to ensure that the contract requirements are met. In the past five years, 48 692 road maintenance works items under these contracts were proceeded on schedule, while 782 items were reported delays. The longest delay recorded was 97 days and the average delay was 17 days.
In the past five years, six complaints were lodged by District Councillors, motorists and members of the public about traffic congestion caused by the delays mentioned above. There were 782 cases in which the HyD has issued warnings to or imposed fines on the contractors under the contracts for delayed completion of works.
Ends/Wednesday, June 15, 2005
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