The Water Supplies Department has pledged to raise productivity after the auditor found that some of its outdoor staff worked an average of 4.5 hours a day.
Director Hu Man-shiu said the department would make manpower improvements, reduce electricity wastage, upgrade technology and reorganise the work environment in order to meet the target five per cent increase in productivity.
'But to meet this target will be extremely difficult, which is why we've been given three years,' Mr Hu said.
Monitoring of meter-readers in May found that a fifth of them consistently finished work early and more than a third took breaks of three to five hours. One meter-reader was discovered finishing work at 11.07am on average.
The audit cited the insufficient workload of some meter reading routes as the main reason for their short working hours.
The department pledged to redesign the meter-reading routes to 'better utilise available resources'.
