LC Q18: Information Technology Professional Services Arrangement

Following is a question by the Hon Sin Chung-kai and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr Henry Tang, in the Legislative Council today (February 19):

Question:

In June last year, the Information Technology Services Department entered, under the Information Technology Professional Services Arrangement ("ITPSA"), into 23 standing agreements with 12 companies. These companies are allowed to bid for service contracts of government information technology ("IT") projects during a 30-month contract period. Moreover, during the period from 27 June to 30 September last year, in terms of the number of contracts awarded under the ITPSA and the contract sums, the ratios between local small and medium enterprises ("SMEs") and foreign multi-national companies registered in Hong Kong are 1 to 2.6 and 1 to 8 respectively. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

(a) ITPSA has laid down criteria for selecting IT service contractors by various departments; if so, of the weighting of the bidding price in the selection criteria;

(b) it has formulated measures to ensure that the services provided by the contractors and subcontractors who have been awarded the contracts under ITPSA will not affect the interoperability of computer systems among various government departments; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(c) it will formulate policies and adopt measures, such as splitting up the projects, so as to strengthen local SMEs's ability to bid for government service contracts and boost their chances of winning them; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) When the Information Technology Services Department conducted public tendering for the ITPSA, contractors were selected on the basis of a scoring system in which the quality of the proposal and the tender price accounted for 70 per cent and 30 per cent of the total score respectively. Under the ITPSA, Government departments will issue work assignment briefs and invite proposals from all ITPSA contractors within the relevant service category for individual IT projects. The contractor that submits the valid project proposal at the lowest price will be awarded the work assignment for the IT project.

(b) We have published and implemented the "Interoperability Framework". Government departments are required to adopt the interface standards stipulated in the Interoperability Framework when they develop new IT systems that need to exchange information with the systems in other departments. The departments have to stipulate the requirement of the Interoperability Framework in the project specifications in order to instruct contractors (and their sub-contractors) when they outsource IT projects, so as to ensure the interoperability of computer systems among Government departments.

(c) It is Government's established procurement policy to obtain the best value for money through open and fair competition, and we will not act in favour of or discriminate against any suppliers. Depending on the actual circumstances, we will adopt a flexible approach to encourage SMEs to bid for Government IT projects. For example, where practicable and without affecting the overall project, we may break down a large-scale project into multiple projects of manageable sizes so as to create more opportunities for bidding by SMEs. We also encourage SMEs to participate in Government tenders by enhancing the provision of information about our IT projects to the market and by reducing the financial burden on potential tenderers (for example, lowering or removing the tender and contract deposit requirement, and only requiring a performance bond or bank guarantee from a successful tenderer for high-value or complex project contracts if, during financial vetting, the tenderer is unable to supply adequate supporting information about its financial capability to perform its contractual obligations).

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

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