The Property Management Services Authority (PMSA) today announced that pursuant to Section 5(1) of the Property Management Services Ordinance (Cap. 626), the Code of Conduct entitled “Carrying out Procurement for Clients and Prevention of Bid-rigging” will be gazetted and take effect next month. The Code of Conduct provides clear practical guidance on carrying out procurement and prevention of bid-rigging for the property management (PM) industry and practitioners. The PMSA has also prepared the respective Best Practice Guide in order to allow property management company (PMC) and property management practitioner (PMP) licensees to comply with the guidelines stipulated in the Code of Conduct more effectively and professionally.
The Code of Conduct “Carrying out Procurement for Clients and Prevention of Bid-rigging” stipulates that licensees shall comply with the Building Management Ordinance (Cap. 344) (BMO) and the Code of Practice on Procurement of Supplies, Goods and Services issued under the BMO when carrying out procurement for clients. Moreover, licensees shall prevent the occurrence of anti-competitive conduct including bid-rigging during the procurement process. The Code covers the following aspects:
- Code of conduct for procurement for PMCs and its employees;
- Bidding for service contracts by PMCs;
- Raising PMC employees’ awareness in respect of procurement and establishing internal procedures in PMCs;
- Establishing procurement mechanisms by PMCs;
- Carrying out procurement by petty cash;
- Carrying out procurement by quotation;
- Carrying out procurement by tender;
- Preparing tender documents;
- Reducing communication between suppliers/tenderers;
- Assessing tender;
- Incorporating protection clauses in contract;
- Keeping records of procurement; and
- Reporting contravention of procurement procedures and bid-rigging.
The PMSA formulated this Code of Conduct and its respective Best Practice Guide in consultation with the PM industry, owners’ organisations, the Competition Commission, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the Consumer Council, and the Home Affairs Department. The feedback collected from the consultation has been appropriately reflected in the Code of Conduct and the Best Practice Guide.
The PMSA Chairperson Mr Tony TSE emphasised, “Carrying out procurement for clients is an integral part of PMCs’ everyday duty. As PM licensees may carry out procurement in respect of the supply of goods or provision of services for clients during the provision of PM services for properties, the PMSA wishes to provide clear practical guidance for the industry on procurement matters through the promulgation of a Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guide. During the procurement process, bid-rigging occurs if two or more bidders that would otherwise be expected to compete, secretly agreed that they would not compete with one another for particular projects. Bid-rigging is inherently a serious anti-competitive conduct which contravenes the Competition Ordinance (Cap. 619) and adversely affects the interests of property owners. Hence, the PMSA considers it necessary to provide appropriate guidance to the industry on the prevention of bid-rigging.”
The above Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guide can be downloaded from the following PMSA webpage:
https://www.pmsa.org.hk/en/regulatory/codes-of-conduct
Since the implementation of the PM industry licensing regime, the PMSA has already issued a total of 10 Codes of Conduct and their relevant Best Practice Guides, including “General Code of Conduct”, “Complaint Handling Mechanism of Property Management Companies”, “Effective Control over Property Management Business by Property Management Companies”, “Handling Moneys Received on behalf of Clients by Property Management Companies”, “Obligations of Property Management Companies regarding the Ending of their Appointment”, “Prevention of Corruption”, “Prescribed Conditions on Licences”, “Protection on Personal Data”, “Handling Payment for or Arranging Payment to be Made by Clients” and “Provision of Prescribed Information and Financial Documents to Clients”.
The PMSA will continue to issue other Codes of Conduct and Best Practice Guides timely, covering different PM areas in order to provide guidance to the industry, including but not limited to the following:
- Handling Emergencies;
- Scaffolding Works to be Carried Out at Property;
- Prevention of Corruption – Financial Management;
- Prevention of Corruption – Monitoring Outsourced Property Management Services;
- Prevention of Corruption – Staff Recruitment and Management;
- Handling Instrument of Appointing a Proxy; and
- Mechanism of Distribution of Promotional Materials at Property.
Ends/Thursday, 31 March 2022
Issued at HKT 12:30
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