Appendix 18/Attachment A(i)
MAINTENANCE OF ESTATE AIDED SCHOOLS
A GUIDE TO THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY HOUSING DEPARTMENT AS FROM 15 JUNE 1989
Generally
1.	Apart from acting as the landlord for the Government in maintaining the external and structural elements of the estate aided schools, the Housing Department is responsible for providing internal maintenance services to these estate aided schools as from 15 June 1989. The Maintenance Division of the Construction Branch of the Housing Department is involved in the provision of maintenance services to estate aided schools.
2.	Once the estate aided schools have identified the internal major repair works which they require in their annual application for funding in response to the Education Department's call-circular, the Housing Department will undertake all the subsequent detailed work of processing the application and, once approved for funding by the Education Department, will arrange for the work to be undertaken on-site at the earliest possible time convenient to the schools.
Services to School Supervisors' New Applications for Major Repairs
3.	As briefly touched upon earlier, the Housing Department's service in respect of applications for funding of internal works for inclusion in the following year's Draft Estimates of the Education Department will be as follows :
	(a)	In preparing the major repairs estimates application, the school Supervisors should consider to re-include those rejected items of works in the last year's return, should the situation warrant.
	(b)	The Education Department will exercise an initial screening of the applications and will request the Maintenance Division of the Housing Department to provide professional and technical advice together with estimated costs on the proposed major repairs items. The Maintenance Division's staff will contact each school to arrange for site inspections and discussions with the school Supervisor/ Principal to establish the full details of the work requested. In the meeting(s), the Maintenance Division's staff will advise the school which items are considered to be "essential", "desirable but not essential" or "not necessary" in the context of keeping the school premises in a state of repair as well as items of improvement.
	(c)	Upon reaching agreement with the school, the Maintenance Division of the Housing Department will provide the Education Department with the Estimation Sheet for each estate aided school for budgetary and funding purposes.
Approved Major Repairs Works
4.	For those works which the Education Department has approved to be funded in a certain financial year, the Housing Department will contact the relevant estate aided schools during the month of April/May of that financial year to proceed with the following :
	(a)	Upon receipt of information from the Education Department on the approved items of major repairs for individual estate aided school, the Maintenance Division's staff of the Housing Department will arrange meetings with the school supervisor to agree on the time-tables for implementation of the works.
	(b)	As clients, the schools' opinions in relation to colour schemes, choice of materials and design details will be taken into consideration by the Maintenance Division in preparing the works order to the contractor. Generally, the schools' requirements must be fallen within the Housing Department's standard and particular specifications of materials and workmanship.
	(c)	During the progress of works, the Maintenance Division's staff will pay regular visits to supervise the contractor and to ensure that works are being undertaken correctly and to programme. The school are requested not to give instructions directly to the contractor should the schools have any opinions, comments or suggestions in relation to the work in progress, they should contact the Maintenance Division's project staff, whose contacting telephone numbers can be obtained during the initial meeting as stated above or from the relevant District Education Officer.
	(d)	When the works for individual schools are considered by the Maintenance Division of the Housing Department to be satisfactorily completed, a joint "hand-over" meeting will be arranged with the school Supervisor. If there are outstanding items discovered during the meeting but will not affect the intended use of the completed project, the Maintenance Division's staff will instruct the contractor to complete them within the "maintenance period", which is 6 or 12 months, depending on the contract, counting from the certified completion date of the works.
	(e)	All defects as the result of the contractor's poor materials and workmanship will be rectified under the instruction of the project staff of the Maintenance Division. At about one week before the expiry of the maintenance period, a joint site meeting between the school Supervisor, the project maintenance staff and the contractor will be conducted to finalize the list of the defects. However, during the maintenance period, should the school discover any defect that would affect the safety, the project maintenance staff should be informed for immediate attention.
	(f)	The Housing Department will be responsible for valuing the contractor's work for the purpose of payments in accordance with the Housing Department's accounting procedures, and the school Supervisor will have no need to be involved in this respect.
Repairs by Landlord
5.	The school Supervisor should note that the Housing Department, acting as the landlord for the Government, is responsible for upkeeping the external and structural elements of the school premises such as roofing, building fabrics, plumbing and drainage systems and slopes with funds obtained directly from the Government. Should defects have occurred in these areas, immediate report should be made to the Estate Office of the estate in which the estate aided school is situated. As regards external redecoration of the school premises, they will normally be arranged at the same time when the estate in which the school is situated is doing the external redecoration.
Advisory/Consultant Service
6.	At any time, should the school Supervisor have any concern in relation to the safety and the structural soundness of the school building, the Estate Office of the estate in which the school is situated can be contacted for assistance or referral to the Maintenance Division of the Housing Department for professional and technical advice and remedial actions if necessary.