The Development Bureau has suspended the contractor involved in a September 24 fatal industrial incident at a West Kowloon private project from tendering for public works contracts.

The bureau today said the Government attaches great importance to construction safety and the suspension was made pursuant to the regulating regime.

The contractor concerned was on the bureau’s list of approved suppliers of materials and specialist contractors for public works.

The bureau issued a notification to the contractor yesterday to suspend it from tendering for the Air-conditioning Installation category of public works contracts with immediate effect.

The contractor has to conduct an independent safety audit to review its safety management system and, taking cognisance of its outcome, submit an improvement action plan and implement relevant measures.

The bureau will only consider lifting the tendering suspension when the contractor demonstrates that it has an effective safety management system.

The suspension is not only confined to future tender exercises, but is also applicable to tender exercises with procedures initiated but not concluded.

The bureau said it will continue to follow up on the incident seriously, adding that subject to the investigation findings of the fatal industrial incident, it may extend the period of suspension from tendering for public works contracts and even remove the contractor from the list.