📋 Tender Overview
A spokesman for the Buildings Department BD said on November 29 that the BD has issued orders under the Buildings Ordinance BO requiring the immediate temporary suspension of works on 28 private building projects with Prestige Construction Engineering Company Limited PCE as the registered contractor as well as on two other private building maintenance projects in which plastic sheeting were found to be used The BD has also ordered at once the two registered contractors concerned Fulam Construction Engineering Company Limited and Yuen Fat Construction Engineering Limited to remove the plastic sheeting and will seek legal advice for considering legal penalties Contractors responsible for the abovementioned 30 projects are required to conduct an independent safety audit for the projects and submit to the BD an improvement plan and implement improvement measures before considering if and when the works could be resumed
The BDs decision to temporarily suspend the works on the 28 projects managed by PCE was due to a lack of confidence in its ability to ensure site safety The No 5 alarm fire at Wang Fuk Court Tai Po exposed serious deficiencies of PCE in site safety management including the extensive use of foam boards to block up windows during building repairs Given the concerns about PCEs capabilities and awareness on site safety the BD has issued orders under Section 231biii of the BO to suspend the works projects with PCE as the main contractor with immediate effect Of these projects where PCE is the registered contractor 11 involve repairs of private buildings and 17 involve additions and alterations works
During the special inspection operation the BD found two building maintenance projects where windows were covered up by plastic sheeting These included one at Fortress Garden in North Point the registered contractor for this project is Yuen Fat Construction Engineering Limited with PCE as project manager and another one at China Travel Building in Central the registered contractor for this project is Fulam Construction Engineering Company Limited The BD has already asked the registered contractors of the two projects to remove the plastic sheeting and will seek legal advice for considering legal penalties For the sake of prudence the BD has also ordered a temporary suspension of the two projects
Apart from issuing orders for temporary suspension the BD has already required the relevant contractors to conduct an independent safety audit to review their safety management system Taking cognisance of the outcome of the safety audit the contractors are required to submit an improvement plan and implement improvement measures with a view to demonstrating that they have an effective safety management system before the resumption of works can be considered
The temporary suspension of works is to better safeguard the safety of both workers and users As for the impact on the progress of the relevant projects it will depend on whether the contractors can promptly implement a site safety plan that the BD will accept
Furthermore the BD will continue its special inspection operation As of November 29 250 buildings have been inspected and samples have been taken for testing from buildings installed with scaffold nets If further buildings are found to be using foam or plastic sheeting to block up windows or if sampling results indicate that the scaffold nets fail to meet fireretardant standards followup actions will be promptly announced
