Rosário says authorities too optimistic when estimating public works completion

Raimundo Rosário

The Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo Rosário, apologized on air during yesterday’s TDM talk show to residents who had purchased pre-sale flats for the uncompleted Ilha Verde public housing complex.
Since it was revealed that the housing project would fail to be completed by 2016 as scheduled, Rosário acknowledged that the actual completion date is still uncertain. Moreover, he said that the construction of two other public housing projects is currently at a standstill, namely the Toi San and Mong-Há public housing complexes.
The Secretary explained that during the construction of Toi San housing’s three basements, cracks emerged in the adjacent old building. The authorities therefore suspended the construction and are now studying a new design, which will be without, or have fewer, basements. As for the Mong-Há project, he said that construction will be resumed after negotiation with the contractor.
The official further stressed that the biggest issue in Macau’s public works is schedule overruns. While most of the developments have gone over budget by up to 10 percent – which he believes is normal – time overruns have caused most projects to exceed planned timeframes.
He highlighted some reasons for the overruns, such as authorities being too optimistic when estimating how much time a project needs for completion. He said that, for public housing projects, the authorities tend to add as many social facilities and parking lots into the space as possible, and this has resulted in a need to build basements. Most of the time overruns are caused by the construction of basements due to problems such as inaccurate pre-exploration of soil.
In addition, Rosário acknowledged that contractors in Macau tend to pay little attention to public workers, another factor contributing to the slow progress. BY

gov’t to review affordable housing law to avoid vacant units

The government will review the city’s affordable housing law in order to introduce penalties for owners who leave housing units vacant, Secretary Raimundo do Rosário revealed yesterday on the sidelines of the Radio Macau talk show.
A total of 2,500 public housing units are currently vacant, despite having been granted to residents; of these, 1,400 are located in Seac Pai Van.
The Secretary acknowledged that there are loopholes in Macau’s affordable housing regulations, since units are granted on a permanent and effective basis. However, there are currently no sanctions that can be applied to owners who fail to occupy their flats.
“The law stipulates penalties when apartments are used for other purposes, such as subletting, but there are no penalties for when a housing unit is left vacant,” he stated, according to Radio Macau.
The Secretary added that the government is considering reviewing the law to ensure that housing units are not left vacant after being granted to applicants. Meanwhile, the Housing Bureau has set up a special program to  investigate reasons behind the issue.

Casino buses stir debate

In response to requests from residents for the government to regulate casinos’ shuttle buses, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo Rosário, acknowledged on yesterday’s TDM talk show that it is an issue. However, he indicated that it would cause further problems if Macau were to abolish them.
Rosário noted, “Currently, the three public bus service operators carry a total of 530,000 passengers each day, while the casino shuttle buses carry more than 100,000 passengers. Once the casino buses stop operating, there will be a problem.”
Meanwhile, the Secretary suggested that the government’s subsidies for public bus passengers are too high, as over half of the tariff is covered by the government. He explained that currently both local residents and visitors benefit from the bus service subsidies, as the subsidies are granted via bus service operators. This makes it difficult to dedicate the subsidies to local residents only. Rosário said that resolving this matter is not an easy task, but he would discuss measures for addressing it with the Transport Bureau.