The CCAC has released “a comprehensive report on serious wall tile falling at common areas of Edifício do Lago and Edifício Ip Heng”, where it believes that the tile falling problem involving large areas of the two major economic housing projects concerned was relevant to various factors, such as designs of wall finishes of common areas of the buildings by the design units, material selection and sizes of tiles, quality of tile laying workmanship of the construction workers of the contractors, abrupt changes of ambient temperature, stringency of oversight as well as inspection and acceptance, adequacy of the subsequent repairs and follow-up work, etc. As such, all units and departments cannot distance themselves from this matter. In the CCAC’s opinion, neither the administrative bodies or contractors involved nor the oversight and quality control units took stock of or probed into the causes in a comprehensive and serious manner. As a result, they missed the favourable time to tackle the problem at its root, and it is therefore impossible to be a hundred percent certain about the underlying causes of the tile falling problem. However, given that the wall tile falling situations at the common areas of the two buildings have been posing a threat to the safety of the households, the CCAC suggested that the relevant departments proactively respond to the needs of the households and find an ultimate solution to the matter together with them.
Between 2012 and 2013, Edifício do Lago in Taipa and Edifício Ip Heng in Coloane were granted a use licence successively. Between 2016 and 2020, the CCAC continuously received complaints and views from households of the two economic housing projects as well as other associations, who doubted if the phenomena of large slabs of tiles falling off walls at common areas resulted from factors such as design defects, use of improper materials, ineffective quality control, etc. In response, the CCAC opened inquiry files at different times. Taking account of the fact that the relevant departments had been following up the relevant repair works and that there was no clear administrative illegality or irregularity, the CCAC archived the cases. Later on, while the tile falling problem continued, the relevant departments permitted the contractors to stop the follow-up work even though they had yet to find out the causes of the problems and the accountable parties. Meanwhile, the CCAC collected more information including the documents that had yet to be submitted along with the rest by the relevant departments. Therefore, the Commissioner Against Corruption ordered to reopen the inquiry file concerning Edifício Ip Heng last year and it was incorporated into the case relating to Edifício do Lago that was under investigation. A comprehensive investigation file was therefore opened so that an in-depth investigation could be carried out.
The CCAC pointed out in the report that, upon a comprehensive analysis of the evidence provided by witnesses and the proof obtained, it could not ascertain that there was corrupt behaviour in the works tender, vetting and approval or inspection procedures of Edifício do Lago and Edifício Ip Heng. It was found that the sizes of the wall tiles used at the lift lobbies and public corridors of Edifício do Lago did not conform to the requirements of the Public Administration. During the inspection and acceptance phase, at the random checks conducted on the walls at the public corridors of Edifício do Lago, the hollow tile situation was detected at over 95% of the total number of checks. Nevertheless, a provisional acceptance note was signed. During the building maintenance, tiles fell off at public corridors many times at Edifício do Lago. The Housing Bureau (IH) therefore requested, through the former Infrastructure Development Office (GDI), the contractor to carry out repairs. However, neither did it conduct in-depth checks on and make records of the wall tiles of all floors of all the blocks nor did it provide improvement solutions to prevent similar situations from happening again. Instead, a repair was only carried out “to replace a fallen tile when there was one”. Since the definite acceptance of the buildings, there have been tiles falling at different floors of Edifício do Lago from time to time.
Regarding Edifício Ip Heng, during the phases of construction as well as inspection and acceptance, there were not any responsible units having requested for a pull-off test of tiles at the public corridors of the building. Upon signing the provisional acceptance note, tiles successively fell off the walls at the common areas of Edifício Ip Heng during the warranty period, the former GDI and the IH only urged the contractors to follow up the repair works instead of finding out the causes in a timely manner and seriously pursuing whether the problems arose from the design or construction phase or from both phases. After the warranty period for the building construction had expired, the tile falling incident at the common areas of Edifício Ip Heng still occurred. The IH requested all condominium unit owners of Edifício Ip Heng to bear the responsibility of repair works and handle the tile falling issue by resolution at the general meetings of all condominium unit owners. The issue of wall tile falling at the common areas was discussed on the agendas of the general meetings of all condominium unit owners from eight blocks of Edifício Ip Heng, where the IH opted to vote to abstain and there was not any proposal of repair plans having successfully passed in the general meetings.
The CCAC points out that the tile falling problem involving large areas of the two major economic housing projects concerned was undoubtedly relevant to various factors, such as designs of wall finishes of common areas of the buildings by the design units, material selection and sizes of tiles, quality of tile laying workmanship of the construction workers of the contractors, abrupt changes of ambient temperature, stringency of oversight as well as inspection and acceptance, adequacy of the subsequent repairs and follow-up work, etc. However, there existed unsatisfactory negligence or imprudence in the phases of design, construction, oversight, supervision and coordination. As such, all units and departments cannot distance themselves from this matter. The former GDI did not actively cooperate with the IH when the latter inquired about or requested for information in relation to the two economic housing projects concerned in the case. When the IH requested for the inspection records concerning the units of Edifício do Lago carried out by the oversight company of the construction works of the building, the former GDI even refused to provide such information by taking the reasons that the responsibilities of construction and maintenance did not relate to the IH. Thus, when the tile falling incidents subsequently occurred, such act directly hindered the IH to carry out the functions of supervision and coordination according to the law due to limited participation and grasp of information during the construction process of the building construction. The relevant act of the former GDI indeed involved administrative irregularity. Upon obtaining the news from the management companies of the two buildings that a large number of tiles falling off the walls at the common areas, the IH, which just all along performed the role of a messenger and solely transferred the problems to the former GDI or accompanied it for follow-up work, failed to actively carry out the functions of supervision and coordination bestowed by the New Economic Housing Law. Moreover, when the former GDI failed to investigate the causes of tile falling and the accountable parties accurately and in a timely manner, the IH did not request it to strictly implement the regulations provided for in the Legal Regime of Public Works Contracts. Such act also allegedly involved omission, an irregularity of an administrative act.
The report points out that the problems concerning prevention of tile falling in the two economic housing buildings and the maintenance of the tiles have accentuated the serious lack of coordination and cooperation between the former GDI and the IH. The two departments lacked coordination with each other and it seems that they did not try to have more communication and coordination with each other regarding inter-departmental works, resulting in citizens’ negative impression of government departments that they pass the buck and it is impossible to pursue liability. In addition, the report criticises that the relevant departments lacked prudence as the materials and sizes of the tiles did not meet the authority’s requirements and there was no rigorous regulation on the tile laying workmanship and techniques. The indifferent attitude of the relevant departments towards the large number of hollow tile walls discovered at the public corridors during random checks has reflected the poor supervision of the administrative bodies, the oversight unit and the inspection unit on the construction works.
During the warranty periods and the successive tile falling situations at a later stage, the relevant oversight companies seemed to rarely participate and provide constructive responses. In particular, they did not provide a detailed analysis report on the causes of or solutions to tile falling. The CCAC considered that in the beginning, there was no professional opinion on the tile falling incidents given by third parties other than the works award contracts, including the oversight companies and the quality control unit, thus having significant negative impact on the search for the fundamental cause of the unusual tile falling and the accountable parties. Therefore, it is one of the main reasons why the tile falling problem remains unsolved. Regarding the vetting and approval process, the selection of the materials and sizes of the tiles on the walls of the common areas of the economic housing buildings involved did not strictly accord with the requirements originally imposed by the IH. Although the oversight units also knew that there were a lot of hollow tiles found during the inspection and acceptance phase, the relevant oversight companies and quality control unit did nothing and the opinions they raised were not concrete. The CCAC considers that an oversight company should not only point out the contractor’s problems in the completion stage of the construction. It is also the company’s responsibility to discover and solve the problems in a timely manner when the construction is still in progress. In other words, the contractor, indeed, is not the only one accountable for the flaws of the works found during the provisional acceptance process. The oversight company and the quality control unit that supervise the quality of the works also bear unshirkable responsibilities. Therefore, in the report, the CCAC suggests that the authorities, from the legislative or technical perspective, should consider whether there is a need to make the construction works and the construction standards quantifiable with clear regulations and even think if it is possible to set the upper limit or ratio of the number of flaws of construction works found in the provisional acceptance process, which could reflect the quality of the construction of the contractor and monitor the work quality of the oversight company and the quality control unit as the supervision units.
According to the CCAC, judging from the future design and selection of wall tiles at the public corridors of the economic housing buildings at zone A of the New Urban Zones, it was obvious that the authorities had learnt the lesson and made efforts to optimise the design and construction quality of economic housing buildings. The design and material selection of the wall finishes of common areas as well as the laying method were planned by the current-term IH and the former GDI based on their mutual agreement, consensus and adjustment. As regards issues concerning construction of economic housing buildings, it can be seen that the IH is gradually strengthening and implementing its role as economic housing coordinator and the cooperation among the relevant departments has apparently improved. Nevertheless, the tile falling problem concerning Edifício do Lago and Edifício Ip Heng has yet to be solved adequately. In the CCAC’s opinion, the fact that households of economic housing are with limited financial means should be taken into consideration. Despite that the warranty periods for the two economic housing buildings already expired, it does not prevent the authorities from, if permitted by law and under the principle of good faith as well as the people-based governance philosophy, adopting appropriate and effective governance measures so as to improve the sense of well-being of residents. It may consider giving financial and non-financial support, proactively responding to the needs of the residents and seeking an ultimate solution with the households, so as to solve the tile falling problem once and for all and avoid the danger of tile falling in the future, namely by carrying out comprehensive and appropriate repairs, promoting and encouraging discussion and resolution on solutions at general meetings of all condominium unit owners of different blocks, etc.
The CCAC also hopes the relevant authorities will draw the lessons from the two economic housing projects concerned in the case. With the experiences concluded, growing sense, keen observation and awareness, the SAR Government will be able to, in the course of design, coordination of construction, supervision and inspection of public housing in the future, or even the management work of the building in a later stage, seriously handle the problems when they are still at an early stage. Getting to the root of the matter favours the determination of accountable parties, improvement or the solving of relevant problems and the follow-up of subsequent work.
The CCAC has already submitted the report on the result of the investigation to the Chief Executive. The full report may be downloaded from the CCAC’s website.