Development Bureau imposes regulating actions on contractor involved in fatal industrial incident at non-governmental construction site in Chek Lap Kok
A spokesman for the Development Bureau (DEVB) said today (November8) that the contractor involved in the fatal industrial incident at a non-governmental construction site in Chek Lap Kok yesterday (November 7) was under the List of Approved Contractors for Public Works (the List).
The DEVB, being the party to procure services for public works, attaches great importance to the site safety performance of all construction sites under the purview of contractors on the List (regardless of whether the sites are governmental construction sites or not). The DEVB issued a notification to the contractor concerned today to suspend it from tendering for public works contracts in the buildings category with immediate effect pursuant to the regulating regime. The contractor concerned has to conduct an independent safety audit to review its safety management system. Taking cognisance of the outcome of the independent safety audit, the contractor is required to submit an improvement action plan and implement improvement measures, with a view to demonstrating that it has an effective safety management system before the lifting of the suspension from tendering can be considered. The suspension from tendering is not only confined to future tender exercises, but is also applicable to tender exercises with procedures initiated but not concluded.
The Labour Department is investigating this industrial incident and will handle it in accordance with the law. Subject to the investigation findings, the DEVB may impose further regulating actions on the contractor concerned later on, including extension of the period of suspension from tendering for public works contracts and even removal from the List.
Meeting attendance of members of District Councils in 2024
The Home Affairs Department (HAD) made the following clarifications today (January 2) regarding certain media reports on the meeting attendance of the current-term members of the District Councils (DCs) in 2024:
(1) The current-term DC members were diligent in their work, with over 98 per cent of 470 members having attended all DC meetings or were only absent with the DC's consent; over 90 per cent having attended all committee/working group meetings or were only absent with the DC's consent. Aside from attending DC meetings, each DC member on average attended 28 committee/working group meetings;
(2) all DC members fulfilled the requirement under the Performance Monitoring Guidelines for Members of the DCs (the Guidelines), i.e. attendance rate of not lower than 80 per cent and no DC members were in violation of the requirement; certain reports were incorrect in stating that some DC members were in violation of the Guidelines due to their absence at meetings since absence at an individual meeting was not a violation in itself; and
(3) for the purpose of calculating attendance, the Guidelines stipulate certain reasons for absence that would be consented by the DCs, including sickness and attendance at another meeting or an activity on behalf of the DCs etc. If a DC member were absent from meetings due to the aforementioned reasons with the DC's consent, the absence would not affect his/her attendance rate. If a DC member were absent from meetings due to other reasons (i.e. personal matters), the absence would be counted towards his/her attendance rate.
The HAD hoped that media outlets and members of the public would have an accurate understanding of DC members' attendance situation at meetings. The current-term DC members' attendance rate at meetings was the highest amongst all previous terms, which fully demonstrated DC members' efforts and work in improving governance at the district level.
