To follow up on my last message, I wish to share with you my observation on some of the regular complaints that we receive. Among the various complaints, those relating to the abuse of public housing resources always top the list. Such cases usually fall into one of the two main types: false declaration of income and assets, and tenancy abuse.

One of the key responsibilities given to the Housing Authority relates to safeguarding the use of valuable housing resources, in particular now when there is such an acute shortage of land for public housing development. To this end, we have a number of measures to tackle these problems. After identifying suspected cases through the vetting of all income and assets declarations, a special central team in headquarters level will undertake in-depth investigation into the suspected cases. Last year, the team conducted rigorous checks on some 5 800 randomly selected and suspected cases referred by frontline management.

As far as tenancy abuse is concerned, there are occasional complaints concerning unauthorised occupation, non-occupation, use of public housing units for illegal purposes such as gambling, and sub-letting of existing public housing flats. We are always looking for such information and try to make it easy for people to report. For example, we distribute Tenancy Abuse Report Aerogrammes to all public rental housing households; and raise awareness of the issue through advertisements in the press, on Light Rail trains and bus-side panels, as well as broadcasting on the radio and the Housing Channel. We always follow up on reports and have regular programmes intended to help us identify abuse cases; these include conducting regular home visits to public housing flats by our estate staff. For the suspected and high-risk potential abuse cases, the central team will carry out in-depth investigations to gather evidence of non-occupation. Again they will conduct home visits. Last year, some 8 500 occupancy-related cases were investigated with 470 flats recovered.

Every now and then, we also received complaints regarding estate management issues. It has come to my notice that in recent months we have had quite a few complaints about the burning of incense and joss sticks causing nuisance to neighbours. I understand that it is a tradition for some families to burn incense on a regular basis or during some special occasions. This month, according to the lunar calendar, is the seventh month and the Yu Lan Festival falls on the 14th of the month. It is common that more burning of incense would take place. Our estate staff has worked with the Estate Management Advisory Committees to designate appropriate spots within public housing estates where burning containers are provided for burning of incense. By doing so, we hope to reduce the impact of such activities and more importantly, it would be much safer for tenants to make use of these facilities instead of burning incense outside their flats.

There are always things to learn from each complaint and enquiry, therefore I am keen to receive feedback from our tenants and members of the public. Please feel free to comment or pass me your views. Through more communication, we would be able to improve and enhance our work and services.

D W Pescod
Director of Housing

Stringent quality control on the production processes of building materials is crucial to enhancing the built quality, and this is exactly what the Housing Authority has been striving for. Housing Dimensions will report in two consecutive issues how the panel wall partition, one of the main components of a public housing flat, is manufactured and tested.

We have been widely using precast panel wall as partitions for kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms in the construction of domestic units for many years. The precast panel wall has many benefits and advantages over the traditional brick wall:

• It is mass-produced in factories under controlled conditions and close scrutiny, better quality control is thus assured.
• Compared to the traditional brick wall (normally 100 mm or 150 mm thick), the panel wall is thinner and lighter, measuring only 85 mm in thickness and made of lightweight materials such as Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate. The building load is thus effectively reduced.
• The hollow design of the panel wall enhances noise resistance and heat insulation.
• All pipes can be hidden in the hollow panel. This helps increase indoor space.
• While brick walls have to be built on site with cement mortar, each panel wall is tailor-made and installed as a whole piece inside the flat. This significantly speeds up the construction process.
• Skim coat can be applied directly onto the smooth surface of the precast panel.  It is much more environmentally friendly as wastage can be reduced.

Precast panel walls are mainly made of lightweight concrete, the manufacturing process of which is subject to stringent control. First of all, data of all the raw materials for the concrete are input into the computer. The required materials are measured by an electronic scale and automatically delivered to a mixing equipment. The materials are then mixed well and the concrete thus produced is placed in a bucket and transported to the next stop of the production line.

The concrete needs to undergo various tests. The Slump Test, for example, checks the workability of the concrete and determines whether the concrete is fit for use. A small amount of concrete sample is placed in a steel tray, where it is mixed with a shovel. The sample is then poured into a semi-conical container, filling one-third of the container, and has to be evened out and compacted with an iron rod. This step is repeated until the entire container is filled with concrete. Next, the container is steadily pulled off. Without the support of the container, the concrete collapses. The container is placed adjacent to the slumped concrete to measure the drop. Two separate slump tests are carried out for every batch of concrete. If the average drop of the two slump tests reaches the required standard, the concrete is ready to be used for the production of panel walls. If not, the entire batch of concrete will be discarded.

The Compressive Test is another quality control measure which checks the compressive strength of the concrete. The concrete sample is poured into cubic metal moulds in three layers and pressed evenly. Each bearing a label with production information of the concrete, the samples are then stored in a cool place to keep moist. When the concrete hardens, the steel mould is removed and a concrete cube is formed. The concrete cubes are then placed in a curing pool in the quality control room. The water in the curing pool, under 24-hour temperature control, flows constantly to ensure the concrete cubes are kept in the best condition.

The Compressive Test is carried out on the concrete cubes on the 28th day after casting. If the compressive strength fails to meet the required standard, all the panel walls made with the same batch of concrete will not be used.

Apart from the tests mentioned above, we also conduct other performance tests on the panel walls after they are delivered to the construction site. Watch out for details of these tests in the next issue of Housing Dimensions.