Safety Performance		Securing Workers' Payment and Rights
		Sustainable Living Environment		Health and Hygiene
		Staff Development and Participation

As a socially responsible public agent, we endeavour to ensure the well-being of our employees, business partners and tenants. Throughout the years, the Housing Authority (HA) has focused on diversified areas such as fostering a safety culture among our stakeholders, maintenance and better management of our quality housing stock, protecting workers' wages, providing a sustainable living environment and encouraging staff development.

We are delighted to report that the Housing Department has been awarded the "Caring Organisation Logo" by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service for the third year. This demonstrates our good corporate citizenship and caring spirit to the local society. We will continue our effort to contribute to the well-being of the community.

During the year, we fully complied with all applicable social legislation. However, there were 5 conviction cases in mosquito breeding regarding our contractors' operations.

Safety Performance

In 2007, we recorded zero fatalities, zero occupational diseases and 40 injury-on-duty in the HA. Our injury rate per thousand employees was 4.6, far below the injury rate of 16.9 per thousand employees in all economic activities in Hong Kong.

Construction Site Safety
As one of Hong Kong's largest housing developers, we make every effort to maintain high safety standards in our workplace. We care for our staff and business partners who are working at the forefront to deliver our products and services. Our Site Safety Strategy, established since 2000, consists of 40 initiatives in the following five areas:

1. Accident analyses
2. Tenders and Contracts
3. Incentives and Sanctions
4. Site Related Safety Culture and Safety Systems
5. Organisation's Safety Culture and Safety Systems

Sustainable housing could not be achieved if we allowed shoddy work practices and poor safety in our construction sites. In addition to our contractual requirements and the statutory requirements, we encourage contractors to adopt safety measures through our Pay for Safety Incentive Scheme, under which contractors are reimbursed based on their health, safety and environmental practices. Depending on the size of a New Works contract, the average payment for all the safety items is approximately 1% of the contract sum. In 2007/08, total payment made under the scheme in various New Works contacts and Maintenance Building Works and Building Services contracts was HK$28.5 million and HK$12.7 million respectively. We also consider the contractors' record of serious or fatal accidents as part of the tender evaluation when new contracts are awarded; contractors with poor safety records have a reduced chance of tendering our projects. It is an effective means of improving contractor performance.

Safety Performance Analysis
According to the government statistics, in 2007 a total of 37 fatalities were recorded in the construction industry among 3 135 reported occupational injury cases. We believe most accidents can be prevented by taking simple precautionary measures or adopting proper working procedures.

Our efforts in promoting construction safety among our work contractors have proved to be effective: we recorded zero fatalities in 2007 and a steady decrease in the accident rate, reduced significantly from 55.8 per thousand workers in 2001 to 11.9 in 2007, far below our annual target of less than 25 accidents per thousand workers. This figure also compares extremely favourably with the overall industry average which has fallen from 115 accidents per thousand workers in 2001 to 60.6 in 2007.

Tenders and Contracts
The HA always emphasises the importance of work safety to our contractors. Our safety policy has been included in the general guide and disseminated to all listed contractors. To make it a top-down commitment via our contractors, we laid down various upstream measures in New Works and Maintenance Works tenders to tighten the risk management and groom the competency of the forefront workforce. These include the incorporation of OSHAS 18001 occupation health and safety management system as a listing requirement for Building Contractors (New Works), Piling Contractors and Building (Maintenance Works), Contractors with Quality Maintenance Contractors status, as well as flagging contractors involved in serious incidents such as fatal accidents or misconduct for critical review.

Performance Assessment Scoring System
Throughout the years, we have utilised the Performance Assessment Scoring System (PASS) to monitor and measure the performance of our building and piling contractors. It has proven to be effective. At the end of 2007, the improvement of the average PASS score for different contractors in comparison to figures at the end of 2002 are:

Owing to the effectiveness and benefits of this system, we will extend the PASS to demolition and soft landscape contractors on a trial basis later this year.

Safety Audit System
To raise safety standards in the workplace, we regularly keep track of and review contractors' performance. Apart from the PASS, we continued to implement the Housing Authority Safety Audit System (HASAS), where independent Accredited Safety Auditors audited contractors' safety performance on a quarterly basis. An audit provides comprehensive safety profiles of contractors, which facilitates subsequent reviews of their safety performance. Contractors will be warned or even suspended from tender if the Safety Audit score falls below 70%. In 2007/08, safety audits were undertaken of about 40 Building, Piling, Demolition and Civil Engineering contracts and the total expenditure on site Safety Audits was about HK$3.9 million.

We have further enhanced the HASAS in 2007 by:

• increasing weight on the effectiveness of the implementation of safety management system on site;
• expanding the scope of the HASAS to Building Services Nominated Sub-contracts (BS NSC);
• linking the HASAS performance to the Pay for Safety Scheme with score banding according to the level of satisfactory performance achieved; and
• placing more emphasis on high-risk or high-incident rate activities.

Fostering Safety Culture
The HA has continued to forge partnerships with stakeholders and participate in territory-wide safety campaigns to propagate awareness and site safety. We are proud to report that our contractors were commended for outstanding performance on site safety in several territory-wide safety campaigns.

We have been working hand-in-hand with the Construction Site Safety Committee of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) in pursuing safety initiatives. We have issued a number of the CIC's safety guidelines (eg. tower cranes, site vehicles mobile plants and hot weather) to all our works contractors and property service providers during the year.

To raise safety awareness and promote a culture of safety among our stakeholders, we collaborated with the Occupational Safety & Health Council to convene the Safety Charter "Partnering for a Safety Culture" for the industry. The Charter was launched in July 2007 during the "Works Contracts and Property Services Contracts Safety Charter Signing and Forum", which attracted over 800 attendees from contractors to learn industry best practices.

Securing Workers' Payment and Rights

Contractor's Wages Protection
To protect frontline workers of our building and demolition contractors from suffering non-payment of wages, we launched a number of measures to secure and monitor their wage payments. These measures, including the employment of Labour Relation Officers and on-demand bonds, were further extended to foundation contractors in June 2007 to foster timely payment of wages. At the end of March 2008, these measures had been incorporated into a total of 29 new contracts protecting a total of 15 179 workers. To simplify the wage payment process, more workers are now receiving their wages through direct bank autopay services.

Protection of Non-skilled Workers
In addition to our commitment to legal compliance, we also make every effort to prevent contractors from breaching Employment Ordinance and Contractual requirements, especially regarding non-skilled workers. To this end we have instituted a Demerit Point System where marks are deducted for each default notice received if contractors violate relevant requirements. The final scores will ultimately affect the future tender selections of contractors.

Along with the Demerit Point System, we monitor contractor's compliance through our Central Monitoring Team (CMT). In 2007/08, the CMT checked 1 421 employment records of 42 cleaning and security service contracts in 27 estates and interviewed 1 202 non-skilled workers. In parallel with these measures we have also educated non-skilled workers about their employment-related rights through information leaflets, a hotline, face-to-face interviews, seminars and briefings.

To further enhance contract management, we introduced an Electronic Facial Attendance System in March 2008 to replace the signing of manual attendance registers by contractors. The System, recognising unique facial features of the workers, is currently used to capture attendance records of cleaning workers and security guards in various estate management offices, protecting them from exploitation and violation of regulatory and contractual requirements.

Sustainable Living Environment

It is always our commitment to provide a comfortable and caring environment that will enable residents to live in harmony with their families and their surroundings. Apart from continually improving the management and quality of our Public Rental Housing (PRH) estates, we have introduced Universal Design in various estates and fostered the "Ageing in Place" culture within the community.

Fostering Family Support
About 411 300 elderly tenants aged 60 or above live in our PRH estates. To promote the family as a core social value in line with the "Ageing in Place" concept, we launched a series of initiatives in the allocation and management of PRH estates in October 2007 to encourage younger family members to either live with their elderly relatives or move closer to each other for better support. By the end of March 2008, around 1 600 families on the PRH Waiting List had been advanced to the allocation stages under the Priority Schemes for Harmonious Families. Under the Addition Policy for Harmonious Families, 800 elderly tenants have added their adult children and their families to the tenancies, benefiting 1 152 individuals. In addition, a total of 136 families, involving 210 people, amalgamated their tenancies under the Amalgamation of Tenancies for Harmonious Families scheme. The scheme enables elderly tenants to live with their children and strengthens ties and support within families. As for Harmonious Families Transfer, a total of 170 PRH households were rehoused near their parents/offspring.

Caring for the Elderly
To further support our "Ageing in Place" principle, we collaborated with HOPE Worldwide to organise the "Volunteers for Senior Day" again in January 2008. Under the "Healthy Ageing in Public Housing Campaign", educational road shows were held in our estates. We also arranged volunteers to visit elderly tenants and carry out safety assessments, ensuring a safer living environment and helping to prevent falls among the elderly. Such arrangements helped to stop low-mobility elderly tenants from becoming "hidden seniors".

Volunteers for Senior Day 2008

Harmonious Living
To celebrate the Hong Kong SAR's 10^th Anniversary, we organised three projects under the theme "Harmonious Family, Caring Community" during the year.

Tin Shui Wai in Celebration – Foot Finger Drawing

In view of the recent social problems in Tin Shui Wai, we launched the "Tin Shui Wai in Celebration" programme to cultivate harmony and cooperation within the community. Residents, schools, district councils and non-government organisations were invited to participate in a wide range of activities including a photo contest and painting a 250 square foot finger drawing. We also worked with social workers to brief tenants on the environment and surroundings as well as the available support services in Tin Shui Wai. Tenants could also obtain information and seek advice through a helpline.

In addition to these activities, we produced and broadcasted eight videos in our Housing Channel to promote harmonious relationships within the community. Social workers and professionals from non-governmental organisations were interviewed to provide tips and advice on how to avoid conflicts between family members in the home.

Universal Accessibility
Since 1998, we have introduced barrier-free access principles in our estate design to cater for tenants with different abilities in movement. The principles were also applied in our existing estates; we have improved access to about 200 estates since 2001 and have carried out home modification for individual disabled persons in accordance with professional advice.

In 2002, we adopted Universal Design principles in all domestic flats and common areas to meet the diverse needs of tenants, such as barrier-free access, 'Ageing in Place', as well as facilities for the physically and visually impaired. Practically, these design principles include ramps and barrier-free access, tactile paths, audio and visual information, safety features in their homes, and specially-designed play areas for children. Improvement work for the visually impaired started in early 2006 at existing estates.

Universal Design principles were fully adopted at Shek Kip Mei Estate Phase 1 in 2007. This was one of our major milestones for "Ageing in Place", and allowed people with different needs to blend into a harmonious community. We installed the first tactile map for the visually impaired and also designed a play area for all age groups, including the mobility impaired. A fun fair was held to celebrate the adoption of the Universal Design principles and to promote understanding of the needs of the disabled and cultivate the benefits of "living in harmony" of the community; it attracted more than 700 people.

Tactile guide path and multi-sensory map at Shek Kip Mei Estate

Convenient Rental Payment
To facilitate rent payment by the PRH tenants, our rent collection network has been expanded with the provision of Alternative Counter Collection Channels. In addition to settling payment at convenience stores, our tenants can pay their rents at over 50 Customer Service Centres at MTR Stations.

Better Living Conditions through Redevelopment and Clearance

We first launched our Comprehensive Redevelopment Programme in 1988 targeted to clear a total of 566 old housing blocks in the territory. Up to end of March 2008, we cleared a total of 559 old housing blocks, achieving 98.8% of our target. The clearance of the remaining seven blocks at Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate, consisting of some 5 405 units, will be completed in mid 2009.

Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate	So Uk Estate

We also plan to clear So Uk Estate and Block 22 of Tung Tau Estate because the repair works required to further maintain these estates are considered not cost-effective. The So Uk Estate is tentatively scheduled for evacuation in two phases during 2008/09 and 2011/12 while Block 22 of Tung Tau Estate is to be cleared in 2012.

In 2007/08, we assisted the Lands Department and Buildings Department in rehousing a total of 400 households affected by 100 squatter clearances and operations against illegal rooftop structures in 300 tenement buildings. We will continue our efforts and support of other government departments in fostering sustainable housing development in the territory.

Continuous Estate Improvements

Our Continual Efforts
Our improvement works in public housing estates during 2007/08 are highlighted below:

• Water Supply Systems
• 27 pump rooms in 11 estates were renovated, with a total of 305 pump rooms renovated to date
• 77 cast iron pumps were replaced with more durable stainless steel pumps
• 18 high-speed pumps were replaced with a low-speed, low noise version

• Lift Modernisation Programmes
• 24 lifts at Tai Hing Estate were modernised and upgraded
• 61 lifts at Shek Kip Mei, Wo Che, Cheung Ching and Tai Hing Estates are being replaced
• Two additional lifts are being installed in Hing Wai House of Tai Hing Estate as part of the feasibility studies for the provision of lifts in low rise domestic blocks

• Rewiring inside Domestic Flats Programme
• The rewiring of 12 833 flats was completed, which exceeded our target.
• The wiring for socket outlets was also upgraded
• Eight projects were completed under the Programme and the remaining five will be completed in 2008/09


Rewiring inside domestic flats

• Drainage Ambassador Scheme
• The tenth round of inspections of external drainage pipes commenced in April 2007
• 1 031 blocks were inspected and 204 blocks were repaired under the Scheme

New Modernization Services

• Upgrading Communal Aerial Systems
• Began upgrading the communal aerial systems in our housing estates for the launch of DTT broadcasting in September 2007, to provide tenants with hi-definition television reception
• Systems in 68 estates in Hong Kong, Kowloon and parts of Shatin were upgraded by the beginning of 2008
• System upgrading in the remaining estates will be completed by August 2008 to tie in with the second phase of DTT broadcasting

• Free Wi-Fi Services
• Free on-line wireless services were provided from about 1 000 communal access points and hot spots in 120 PRH estates starting in January 2008
• Another service vendor will provide free Wi-Fi services in 45 PRH estates by August 2008

  
  Free public Wi Fi services

Management of Service Contractors
We believe it is crucial to engage competent and well performing property services agents (PSA) to manage our PRH estates to ensure a quality living environment for our tenants. We therefore strengthened our tender selection process for the property services contracts by increasing assessment weighting from 36% to 50% of the total weight of the past performance of PSA. The new mechanism, effective June 2007, aims to strike a balance between finance and service quality when selecting PSA.

Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates
Launched in August 2003, our Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates ensures our tenants act considerately and in a socially responsible manner. The Scheme is designed to promote environmental hygiene and better management of public housing estates and ultimately to build up a sustained healthy and pleasant living environment for our tenants.

Under the Scheme, tenants receive penalty points for misdeeds. A Notice-to-Quit will be issued to tenants who have accumulated over 16 penalty points within two years.

Effective October 2007, the Scheme has been extended to cover mixed tenure estates, including 39 Tenants Purchase Scheme and three Buy-or-Rent Option estates. Two misdeeds have been included in the Scheme starting 1 January 2008: "Illegal gambling in public" and "Using leased premises for illegal purposes", which allot five and seven penalty points respectively.

The results of Public Housing Recurrent Surveys showed that the Scheme has effectively improved cleanliness and hygienic conditions in our estates. Overall tenant satisfaction has increased from 52.1% in 2003 to 71% in 2007.

Health and Hygiene

Hand-sanitisers at lift lobbies at Shek Pai Wan Estate

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, a special patrol team of 70 HA staff and 200 security guards was formed to combat wax burning and littering in public areas. We also launched an education programme in our estates to reinforce the message to the public. After the three-day operation, the Team issued five fixed penalty notices and gave over 700 verbal warnings to the public.

Mosquito Control
To prevent the spreading of infectious mosquito-borne diseases in the community, we have instructed cleaning contractors to check all hygiene black spots and to eliminate all potential mosquito breeding grounds. High risk areas such as gullies, drains and areas with stagnant water are inspected and cleared by our Anti-mosquito Special Cleansing Squad every day. To further eliminate mosquito breeding in these areas, we apply larvicidal oil every two weeks and trim plants and grass regularly. A total of 240 mosquito traps were also installed at estates with high Monthly Ovitrap Indexes. Anti-mosquito messages are reinforced through roving carnivals held in 25 estates to raise general awareness.

Ovitrap	Cleansing at Estate

Gas operated Mosquito Catching Apparatus	Spraying insecticide on slope

Management for Commercial Properties
Similar to the Marking Scheme applied to our housing estates, we launched the Enhanced Marking Scheme for our commercial and retail properties, with allotment of penalty points depending on the seriousness of misdeeds committed since October 2006. The Scheme has proven to be effective; about 77% of the respondents of the Public Housing Recurrent Survey 2007 found that it improved the cleanliness and hygienic conditions of our commercial and retail facilities, providing a more enjoyable shopping experience.

The level of cleanliness of our commercial and retail facilities was further improved through the launch of our quarterly incentive awards, namely the Award for Best Toilet Management and the Best Hygiene Award for Food Premises.

Award  for  Best Toilet Management and the Best Hygiene Award for Food Premises in Kwai Chung Estate

Award  for  Best Toilet Management and the Best Hygiene Award for Food Premises in Hoi Lai Shopping Centre

Action against Illegal Cooked Food Stalls
Illegal cooked food hawkers have created significant hygiene problems in our PRH estates. In 2007/08, we conducted a total of 10 805 raids and 185 joint operations with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and the Police against illegal cooked food hawkers, resulting in 192 arrests and 1 242 seizures. To combat the increasing number of illegal hawkers during Chinese New Year, we established eight special teams consisting of about 60 members to check and clear hawker black spots in our estates. As of March 2008, nine households that committed the misdeed on illegal hawking of cooked food were allotted seven penalty points under the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates.

Staff Development and Participation

Human resources are the major asset of our operations. We are wholly committed to providing development opportunities for staff by offering various training and experience sharing programmes in the areas of work-related skills, professional development and personal attributes.

Internal Capability Building
To keep our staff apprised of current practices and knowledge and to sharpen their supervisory skills, we have continued to provide training opportunities in all aspects of our operations through classroom training and an e-learning system. We also offered various sponsorship schemes, such as Contract Staff Development Programme, External Training Sponsorship Scheme for Front-line Staff and External Management Training Sponsorship Scheme, to encourage staff to increase their competence.

In 2007/08, we provided different types of training in response to corporate initiatives and staff needs. Average training investment per staff member was HK$1 964, which exceeded the pledged Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of HK$1 800.

Note:

1. The analysis on the nature of training programmes is based on the number of classroom trainee days. The trainee days generated through e-learning mode and for non-HA staff were excluded.
2. Vocational means technical and professional training programmes.
3. Management and Communication means customer service, leadership, media handling management, languages courses, human resource management, etc.
4. Others include staff integrity programmes, national studies programmes, etc.

Apart from traditional classroom training, we also offered a flexible e-Learning platform, namely the HA e-Learning Portal (HAELP), to encourage self-learning among our staff. In 2007/08, we recorded 5.37 million hits from the HAELP, which exceeded our pledged target of 5 million hits. The consistent high utilisation rate indicates that the HAELP provided a convenient and user-friendly alternative mode to acquire work-related knowledge.

To optimise the use of training resources, it is important to measure their effectiveness. Besides collecting the feedback of classroom trainees, since last year we have also measured the satisfaction level of business partners/project sponsors regarding tailor-made programmes. There is an increasing trend of trainee satisfaction of our courses and tailor-made projects, and it has already surpassed our pledge target. In 2007/08, 86.2% of users rated our courses and services as Very Effective or higher.

Throughout the years, our capability building programmes have provided solid support to the corporate initiatives and business divisions. In early 2008, we launched the "Promotion of HA Core Values" initiative and expanded our training programme to enhance the competence and exposure of staff. During the year, we organised and arranged comprehensive training and promotion events covering strategy, technical and professional knowledge and social well-being.

Executive Talk delivered to senior officers by Mrs Regina Ip, former Secretary for Security	Stress-release Exercise during Office Safety Training

Team Building Training

HA's Core Value Logo

Awareness Enhancement
To underpin staff awareness on corporate value and initiatives, we had launched various promotion activities during the year. For instance, under the "Promotion of HA's Core Values" initiative, we designed a new log for publicity and held a Couplet Competition in November – December 2007 to raise staff's awareness on the HA's Core Values. The competition received an overwhelming response with over 400 couplets received.

We have also promoted health-related knowledge internally to protect our staff. We maintained a Health Portal to enhance staff awareness on balanced work life and their health. We also launched a "Healthy Website Nomination Champaign" from October to December 2007 to promote the health consciousness among staff. To further raise staff awareness, we organised an online quiz programme on health-related knowledge, and around 9 300 correct answers were recorded.

Health Portal	Healthy Website Nomination Champaign

Staff Participation
We understand the importance of work-life balance to the well-being of our staff and therefore had organised a variety of social and sports activities for them and their family members. These activities included outing, hiking, fun fair, banquet and competition as well as leisure courses such as Jazz dance, yoga, Tai Chi, social dance, Chinese painting, aerobic and martial arts. Over 7 300 participants had jointed these activities during the year.

In addition to participation in our internal programmes, our staff are also encouraged to actively participate in charity work to reach out and benefit the society through various social caring activities. During the year, our Volunteer Interest Group had participated in the following activities:

• Tree Planting Day for Civil Service Volunteer Action at the Tai Lam Country Park
• The Hong Kong Tree Planting Day 2008 to plant in an area named "Olympic Green" to mark the first Olympic Games hosted by China
• Senior Citizens Day to visit the elderly in Wong Chuk Hang Estate and distribute gift packs containing winter clothing and foodstuff to the elderly
• "Redecoration of Homes of the Elderly" project to repaint the flats of the elderly

Planting Trees for "Olympic Green"