‘Unacceptable’ explanation over gov’t’s unused properties

Hundreds of the Macau SAR government’s own properties are being left unused, with lawmakers being given an “unacceptable” explanation of the situation.
Yesterday, the Follow-up Committee of Public Administration Affairs of the Legislative Assembly (AL) met with government representatives for a discussion about government-owned properties as well as the government’s property rental expenditure.
Currently, several government departments have been leaving some of their own properties empty, without either being occupied by the departments themselves or rented to other people.
The Macao Post and Telecommunications Bureau (CTT) and the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) have the biggest number of unused properties, 103 of which are parking spaces. Government representatives explained to the lawmakers that these parking lots were far away from the offices of relevant departments, making it difficult for the bureau’s workers to use them. The government representatives also resorted to other claims, such as saying that parking lots are located in various places and are not gathered together, making it difficult for the bureau to utilize them. However, these reasons, in the opinion of the lawmakers, are unacceptable because the bureau could have rented such parking spaces to other people.
According to Mak Soi Kun, some of these parking lots have not been used in ten years.
In addition, at the Pac On multifunctional government building, approximately 200 recently built parking lots are unused because it was inconvenient to rent them to non-government parties, as the surrounding facilities are used to store government-owned items.
However, public departments are offering their own properties at a below-market charge to their own workers, such as the DSF, which is charging only 700 patacas per parking space. These cheap parking spaces are rented to civil servants working for the relevant department. Lawmakers hope that these departments will consider increasing the price.
Aside from the unused properties, the SAR government spent, on average, over 800 million patacas per year from 2017 to 2019 renting offices, parking spaces and storage facilities.
Among all government departments, the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) and DSF have the largest area of rented storage facilities. The Health Bureau and IC are paying the largest amount of money to rent storage facilities compared to other government departments.
Regarding parking spaces, the Public Security Police Force and CTT have more than other government departments. The parking spaces of the Macao Foundation and the The Protocol, Public Relations and External Affairs Office were priced the highest per square meter.
The Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau is paying a total of 4.95 million patacas per month to rent offices. This amount is the largest among all public departments.