Health centre tender open, fair

March 5, 2019

Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan:
I think there are some concerns about me being the honorary patron of this Kwai Tsing group (Safe Community & Healthy City Association) which has won the tender that we have announced yesterday. First of all, I am not involved in any of the tendering process. The tendering process of the Government is actually open and fair, and also it involved colleagues from the Food & Health Bureau as well as the Central Tender Board which is outside the Food & Health Bureau. I was not involved in the entire process and I did not know who had actually put in a tender. I understand that there is a total of seven tenders that had been put in. Based on those concerns, I felt that it is probably appropriate for me to resign from the honorary patron position to alleviate those concerns. Also, being the honorary patron of the organisation or even other organisations, I am not involved in any of the operation or even meetings of the organisation.
I will review the list of organisations that I am involved (in) as a patron, or an honorary patron or an adviser, and then I will make a decision as to whether I should resign from those positions in those organisations because there will be more of these district health centre networks coming up in the rest of the 17 districts in Hong Kong.

The tendering process for the Kwai Tsing District Health Centre was open and fair, Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan said today.

Prof Chan was responding to public concerns over her position as the honorary patron of the Kwai Tsing Safe Community & Healthy City Association, which was awarded the operation service contract for the centre yesterday.

“I am not involved in any of the tendering process. The tendering process of the Government is actually open and fair, and also it involved colleagues from the Food & Health Bureau as well as the Central Tender Board which is outside the Food & Health Bureau.

“I felt that it is probably appropriate for me to resign from the honorary patronage position to alleviate those concerns.”

Prof Chan added she will review the list of organisations she is involved in as a patron, honorary patron or an adviser.

“I will make a decision as to whether I should resign from those positions in those organisations because there will be more of these district health centre networks coming up in the rest of the 17 districts in Hong Kong.”