The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority : 

In response to media enquiries on a report in today's (Monday) South China Morning Post on the architectural consultancy contracts awarded to Wong Tung & Partners, a spokesman for the Housing Authority said that before July 95, the selection of architectural consultant was based on the system adopted by the Architectural Services Department. Consultants were selected from a centralized active list managed by the Works Branch's Architectural and Associated Consultants Selection Board (AACSB). 

In 1989, Wong Tung & Partners were appointed as the consultants for Ma On Shan Area 90 and their scope of work at that time included the production of the Master Plan for the entire area, as well as the administration of the construction work for Phases 1, 4 and 5.

In 1994, a further phase, Phase 6, was added to Ma On Shan Area 90. Wong Tung & Partners were offered the appointment of Phase 6 as an extention to their previous appointment, since Phase 6 fell within the overall Master Plan, and it was considered undesirable to assign another consultant to do the job.
The spokesman stressed that in respect to all these consultancies, the Housing Department followed strictly the requirement laid down by the AACSB who finally approved the department's recommendations after endorsement by the Authority. 
In December 1994, a batch of eight infill sites projects were farmed out to eight consultants through similar selection processes. Wong Tung & Partners were one of the eight firms. 

In total therefore, Wong Tung & Partners have three on-going consultancies, ie, two in Ma On Shan Area 90, and one in Po Lam Estate infill site.
In anticipation of the heavy workload and the need for more projects to be handled by consultants, the Authority has since July 95 adopted its own system of selecting architectural consultants. The objectives of the enhanced system is to procure professional services that best meet the Authority's needs, in terms of quality of design, standard of project management and life expectancy of the completed projects. 

All architectural firms, whether they are in AACSB list or not, are given fair chances to compete for the Authority's work. Approval of the department's recommendations will in future be given by the Authority instead of AACSB. 

With respect to the possible conflict of interest, the spokesman said that the Authority has a well-established set of guidelines to follow. Authority members are required to declare their interest in matters relating to the appointment of consultants, the award of contracts as well as matters relating to consultancies and contracts which come before them in meetings of the Authority or its Committees. They are also required to refrain from participating in the discussion of such matters. This was fully complied with when the project was brought up at the relevant Building Committee meetings. End
Monday, December 18, 1995