A CONTRACTOR running several months behind schedule on two Housing Authority projects has been censured for poor workmanship and a string of health and safety offences.
Details of the delays were revealed in the South China Morning Post three weeks ago when it was admitted work on an authority site on Peng Chau was 10 months late.
The firm, Hoi Sing Construction, has been: Barred from tendering for any further Housing Authority work; Suspended by the Works Branch from bidding for government building and road construction; Fined $105,000 for five breaches of health and safety regulations at one site; Faced with two further summonses for similar offences; Put under investigation by the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency to see if its certification scheme has been broken.
A Works Branch spokesman confirmed the firm had asked to be suspended from competing in two of the five public works categories.
Even though Hoi Sing had been voluntarily suspended it had been at the behest of both the Housing Authority and Works Branch, according to the firm's deputy managing director, Fred Lau Kum-yip.
'We wouldn't have been able to put any tenders in,' he added.