Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ11: FEHD street cleansing services

Following is a question by the Hon Fred Li and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (November 16):

Question :

The Director of Audit's Report No. 37 published in October 2001 put forward a number of recommendations on the mechanised street cleansing services provided by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), which included reducing the scheduled idle time for the street washing operation. FEHD had responded that reviews and studies would be conducted on the issue. However, recently it has been reported in the press that the operation hours of some street washing vehicles are less than half of those prescribed by FEHD. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the number of spot checks carried out by FEHD on the mechanised street cleansing services each year since the publication of the above Report in 2001;

(b) whether, in its spot checks conducted in the past year, FEHD detected any cases of cleansing staff not working according to the time schedule prescribed by FEHD; if so, of the details of the cases concerned, and the measures taken by FEHD in handling such cases; and

(c) whether FEHD has enquired about the situation described in the above press report; if so, of the findings; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply :

Madam President,

(a) In the past four years, FEHD officers conducted 2,400 (2001/02), 2,205 (2002/03), 2,480 (2003/04) and 2,271 (2004/05) surprise checks on mechanised street cleansing services.

(b) From October 2004 to September 2005, there are a total of 64 cases of non-compliance with prescribed work plans in the provision of mechanised street cleansing services by contractor staff and FEHD staff, and most of which are related to the services provided by the contractors. FEHD issued a total of 7 verbal advice/warnings, 41 warning letters and 18 Default Notices to defaulting contractors and deducted about $44,000 from the contract payment in accordance with the contract terms.

(c) In response to the recent media report, FEHD has completed the investigation into the street washing gang concerned.

FEHD's in-house street washing process comprises three parts, including (a) traveling time; (b) traveling time of the street washing vehicles to and from the depot for water refilling (as the capacity of the water tank of the street washing vehicle may not be sufficient for performing the street washing for the whole morning shift or afternoon shift, the street washing vehicle may require to return to the depot for re-filling. Hence the street washing vehicle sometimes may require to travel to and from certain spots several times); and (c) street washing time.

In general, within seven and a half hour's standard working time (i.e. 450 minutes) for in-house street washing service, traveling time is about 90 minutes; traveling time to and from the depot for water refilling is 160 minutes whereas the remaining time of about 200 minutes is spent on street washing.

According to the investigation, the gang carried out their duties on 22 August generally in accordance with the scheduled time and locations. The gang spent 116 minutes in traveling; 148 minutes on water filling and traveling in and out of depot; and a total of 186 minutes on street washing. Due to the difference in traffic condition and state of cleanliness of street, there would naturally be some variance on time spent on each task each day. The media reported that the actual time spent on street washing on the said date as observed was only half of the scheduled time but this might be due to a difference in the method of calculation.

The investigation has been completed and revealed no irregularity in the performance of the street washing gang on that day. FEHD has instructed all staff concerned to strictly follow the operational procedures and guidelines in performing their duties and submit report at the end of each working day for inspection by their supervisor. Supervisors are also reminded to carry out surprise checks randomly and revise and adjust the work schedules when situation warrants.


Ends/Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Issued at HKT 12:52

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