Partial termination of a contract for bottled drinking water for government offices
The Government Logistics Department (GLD) stated that it had partially terminated a contract for the supply of bottled drinking water to government offices on Hong Kong Island and parts of the outlying islands starting from today (August 16).
In June this year, the GLD awarded the contract to Xin Ding Xin Trade Co., Limited (XDX). According to the contract, XDX is to supply bottled drinking water, branded "XinLe" and manufactured by 樂百氏（廣東）飲用水有限公司廣州分公司 (available in Chinese only), to government offices on Hong Kong Island and parts of the outlying islands starting from late June this year for a period of 36 months.
Having received information on XDX's business operation recently, the GLD was not satisfied that XDX would still be capable of performing the contract, and decided to partially terminate the said contract starting from today (August 16) in accordance with contract terms. The GLD will follow up seriously and take follow-up action including whether to terminate the contract. The GLD has also referred the case to Police for investigation.
To ensure the supply of drinking water, the GLD has arranged for AS Watson Group (HK) Limited to supply bottled drinking water temporarily, branded "COOL" and manufactured by the company, to government offices on Hong Kong Island and parts of the outlying islands starting from next week.
The GLD has been monitoring contractual performance of the suppliers of bottled drinking water for government offices, with a view to ensuring stable supply of bottled drinking water in compliance with stipulated technical specifications according to contract terms and ensuring the safety of drinking water. Suppliers are required to submit test reports issued by independent accredited laboratories every two months to prove that the drinking water provided by them complies with the requirements under the technical specifications. The GLD also extracts samples of drinking water for testing from time to time throughout the contract period. In this regard, the GLD has earlier conducted a test of bottled drinking water samples in government offices, which confirmed that the bottled drinking water from all suppliers complied with the safety standards for bottled drinking water.
Following the expiry of the original contracts, the GLD conducted an open tender in March this year to select suitable suppliers of bottled drinking water for government departments. As regards the three successful tenderers and the brands of drinking water to be supplied pursuant to their tenders, the information is set out as follows:
(available in Chinese only)
Source: AI-found images
