With 19 votes in favor and one vote against, the Legislative Council Public Works Subcommittee approved an additional funding of nearly $400 million for the expansion of the Legislative Council Building (pictured), which will be handed over to the Finance Committee for deliberation.
At the meeting yesterday, a number of MPs criticized the government for estimating the wrong number. The construction cost has increased from 1.17 billion yuan to about 1.56 billion yuan. It is necessary to apply for an additional 30% of the funding within a short period of time.
The Director of Architectural Services, Ho Wing-yin, explained that when the Department made the estimates, none of the projects in the market were carried out at night. It had been selected as a reference with high complexity. For example, the hospital was used for estimation, but it was still a day project. As a result, there was still a certain amount of time when estimating workers’ salaries. The difference, “(workers’ evening wages) almost goes to the price of ‘three workers’ and ‘four workers’, if we say the average of the four bids, it may go to the price of ‘five workers’. … We admit that we really have no experience, I think the next time we do something unique, we should be bolder in anticipating similar situations.”
Originally published on AM730 https://www.am730.com.hk/Local/LegCo Public Works Group approves additional funding for building expansion-Government-Night Worker Salary-Four Works-Price/321112