Govt watchdog exposes lapses in street cleaning oversight, sparks reform plans

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has pledged to overhaul its monitoring systems after a damning Audit Commission report revealed significant deficiencies in overseeing the city's HK$7.62 billion street cleaning contracts.

The latest audit findings, presented during a Legislative Council Public Accounts Committee hearing, exposed multiple failures including inaccurate contractor attendance records and insufficient inspection frequency.

As of September last year, FEHD managed 42 three-year cleaning contracts employing over 10,000 outsourced workers - representing 82 percent of the city's street cleaning workforce.

Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Michael Luk Chung-hung raised serious concerns during the hearing about contractors maintaining suspiciously low absenteeism rates, suggesting possible "attendance fraud” through paper record manipulation.

"The current paper-based system leaves too much room for falsification," Luk asserted, demanding electronic verification measures.

FEHD Director Donald Ng Man-kit acknowledged the shortcomings, admitting senior supervisors had previously failed to detect discrepancies between submitted records and actual worker attendance.

He said authorities have already implemented a double-check mechanism where senior supervisors must submit reviewed attendance records to their superiors for verification.

The department currently requires contractors to submit daily attendance reports and conduct bi-weekly quality checks - standards the audit found were not consistently met during spot checks at three of 19 regional offices.

To address these issues, Ng revealed plans to develop an integrated digital system featuring electronic attendance tracking, automated alerts for absenteeism, and real-time monitoring capabilities.

"The new system will eliminate human oversight through computer-generated warning signals when attendance irregularities occur," he said.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan pledged policy-level support for the reforms, emphasizing technology adoption to enhance monitoring efficiency.

"We will closely supervise FEHD's implementation of the Audit Commission's recommendations, leveraging digital solutions to improve service quality," Tse said.

(Marco Lam)