Hong Kong Business News

Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui today convened an urgent meeting with relevant parties on the recent incident concerning government procurement of bottled drinking water.

It was decided at the meeting that a three-pronged approach would be taken to investigate the incident and conduct a review on the system with a view to avoiding a re-occurrence of similar incidents.

Firstly, the Financial Services & the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) has proactively invited the Audit Commission to review the tender exercise for the subject bottled drinking water contract to find out if there is any negligence or deficiencies in the process.

Secondly, a task force chaired by Mr Hui will be established with representatives from the Civil Service Bureau, the Commerce & Economic Development Bureau, the Development Bureau and the Department of Justice.

The task force will review the existing government procurement regime with a view to plugging possible loopholes and avoiding a re-occurrence of similar incidents.

The FSTB anticipates that a report on the preliminary recommendations will be available after three months.

Thirdly, the Government Logistics Department (GLD) has been tasked to take up the main responsibility to continuously monitor the contractual performance of the suppliers of bottled drinking water.

The department will step up its remedial action regarding the contract of bottled drinking water in question, as well as follow up with relevant government departments on other government contracts undertaken by the same contractor and its persons-in-charge to take an overall look at their performances.

Mr Hui said the incident has brought up concerns among government colleagues and drawn extensive attention from the public.

The GLD has informed all bureaus and departments to recall the bottled drinking water in question and made relevant arrangements.