Audit report calls for better oversight of street cleaning services
發佈日期: 2025-04-30 19:34
TVB News
In the Audit Commission's latest report, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has been urged to step up its scrutiny of street cleaning services by contractors.
The report also found that thousands of window inspection orders have gone unheeded for years.
Jacky Lin with more.
As of last September, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department had 42 three-year street cleaning contracts worth 7.62 billion dollars.
They involve over 10,000 outsourced workers, accounting for 82 percent of the overall service. Contractors are required to submit daily attendance records to the department.
But when the Audit Commission visited three out of 19 regional environmental hygiene offices, it found that some contractors failed to submit accurate records and conduct quality checks at least twice a week.
The Sham Shui Po and Yuen Long offices, did not dispatch street washing vehicles according to schedule -- sometimes missing more than half of the planned services.
The report noted internally hired FEHD sanitation staff also showed a higher absentee rate
compared with outsourced workers.
The report found surveillance cameras detected 49 locations with littering issues.
But 80 percent of these cases were not included in the department's reports.
Eight of these locations saw 1,170 instances of littering over three months.
Meanwhile, 37 illegal dumping hotspots had been flagged as long as 7 years ago.
Still, no surveillance cameras are installed at 23 of these locations.
In the Audit Commission's report targeting the Buildings Department's mandatory window inspection program, the watchdog found that over 10,000 inspection orders had not been complied with for more than three years.
The longest delay being 12 years.
From 2017 to 2024, while nearly 660,000 mandatory window inspection notices were complied with, about 27,000 remained unheeded.
The non-compliance rate in common areas reached 27 percent -- significantly higher than the 4 percent for other units.
Over 43 percent of overdue inspection orders had been ignored for more than three years.
Over seven years, the Buildings Department recorded 455 window falling incidents.
295 cases unfolded in buildings were not designated as high-risk.
The audit criticised the Buildings Department for failing to issue warning letters within the stipulated one-month timeframe and delaying the referral of non-compliance cases to fast-track prosecution.
With that, it has urged the department to step up efforts.
