[Archive] Delay in the construction work of government primary schools

Date of sitting: 8 May 2002

Asked by: Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong

Replied by: SEM

Question:

Regarding slippage in the construction works of new school premises of government and aided secondary and primary schools, will the Government inform this Council:

1. of the schools whose new premises were completed in accordance with the planning schedule and put to use in September of that year when the new school year began, and those whose new premises failed to meet the schedule, in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by school districts and the profile of slippage for less than three, six, nine and 12 months or more than one year respectively;
2. of the schools whose new premises will be completed this year in accordance with the planning schedule and put to use in September of this year when the new school year begins, with a breakdown by school districts; and the schools the construction works of whose new premises are expected to be delayed, as well as the length of slippage;
3. of all the causes of the slippage in the construction works;
4. as delays in construction works of new school premises have often occurred over the years and caused confusion in school operations, such as upsetting the plans for their conversion into whole-day schooling, causing new schools to defer their first school day or to have to use the premises of other schools temporarily, whether the Education Department has provided any support to the affected schools; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
5. of the long term measures to solve the problems of frequent slippage in the construction works on new school premises?

Reply:

Madam President:

To ensure that new school premises are completed on schedule, relevant government departments have all along been closely monitoring the progress of school building programmes. We have set up a School Building Programme Review Committee, an inter-departmental committee comprising representatives from the Education Department (ED), the Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) and the Housing Department (HD), to monitor the progress of all school projects. All possible remedial actions will be taken once slippage is identified so that improvement could be made soonest possible. Details of new school premises completed and put to use in the past five years are at Annex I.

3. As shown in Annex I, the majority of school projects were completed on schedule. There may be occasional slippage due to the following reasons -
   
   (1) unsatisfactory performance of contractors (such as poor management, labour dispute and financial problems);
   
   (2) some schools located in public housing estates could not be completed on schedule due to slippage in the housing estate projects;
   
   (3) unforeseen technical problems (such as geotechnical and piling problems); and
   
   (4) disruption caused by bad weather.
   
   
4. According to our original school building programme, 23 new schools will be completed in the 2002/03 school year. Details are at Annex II.
   
   Similar to past years, we have been monitoring closely the progress of school projects. Our assessment up to late April was that there might be a slippage in six school projects this year. It is mainly due to the persistently unsatisfactory performance of a contractor who happens to be in charge of five of these school projects. ArchSD immediately took remedial measures at the end of last year when it noticed that the progress was slow. Measures taken include interviews, written warnings, and deployment of in-house architects to station on the sites for inspection and supervision. The contractor has also been suspended from tendering for other public works projects pending improvement in its performance. We hope that the above measures could urge the contractor to expedite progress so that the schools could be completed on schedule. If the projects fail to complete on time, we will seek compensation from the contractor in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contracts. The remaining project is located in a public housing estate and is delayed due to rainy weather and unforeseen technical difficulties in piling. HD has taken follow-up actions and will closely monitor the progress.
5. Although there is occasional delay in school projects and the delay is only a matter of a month or so, we consider that this situation is not satisfactory. Our target is to ensure that all school projects could be completed before the commencement of a new school year. To achieve this target, we have taken the following actions -
   
   (1) enhancing communication among relevant departments and advancing procedures related to site identification, feasibility studies, planning and funding approval etc., so as to allow a buffer between project completion and school commencement;
   
   (2) streamlining procedures for capital works programmes. The streamlined procedures have applied since November 2001. For example, after the streamlining, the time required for feasibility studies has been reduced by about two to three months; and
   
   (3) strengthening supervision of contractors' performance. To have a deterrent effect, contractors whose performance is poor will be suspended from tendering for public works projects for a period of time and required to compensate under the contracts.
   
   While we will monitor and expedite the school projects through measures mentioned above, we will also keep schools well informed of the latest progress so that they could plan accordingly. If the school premises could not be completed on schedule due to project delay, ED will take the initiative to discuss with schools concerned for contingency measures, such as identifying suitable temporary school premises, borrowing the premises of other schools, adjusting the plans for conversion into whole-day schooling, etc., so as to minimise the impact on teachers and students.

Annex I

New Schools completed during the period 1997 to 2002

New schools completed in 1997

New schools completed in 1998

New schools completed in 1999

New schools completed in 2000

* This school was planned to be built together with the adjacent public housing estate and to provide school places for the designed population of the estate. Due to slippage of the estate project, the completion date of the school was deferred accordingly.

New schools completed in 2001

Annex II

New Schools to be completed in 2002

(1) New schools to be completed as scheduled and put to use in September

(2) New schools to be completed as scheduled and put to use after September

The above schools are located in a public housing estate. To tie in with the housing development, it is our original plan to have the new schools put to use after September.

(3) New schools which may be delayed and not ready for use in September