STOP WORK ORDERS ISSUED TO CONTRACTORS FOR PEST INFESTATIONS

STOP WORK ORDERS ISSUED TO CONTRACTORS FOR PEST INFESTATIONS: 17.

Mdm Cynthia Phua asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) how many Stop Work Orders were issued to building contractors for pest infestation over the last 12 months; (b) what is the average period that contractors had to stop work in such cases and the average cost to the contractor for each day work is stopped; (c) what is the average amount of time taken to book and obtain a re-inspection of the worksite to lift the Stop Work Order; and (d) whether the Ministry has considered the potential conflict of interest if the team that handles the issuance of the Stop Work Order is also responsible for carrying out the re-inspection.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources): In dealing with lapses in complying with environmental regulations, NEA takes a tiered approach, starting first with advice and warnings, and later progressing to fines. Stop Work

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Orders are only issued when NEA assesses that immediate corrective actions are required to clean up the site to prevent conditions which would pose a danger to public health.

In 2007, NEA issued Stop Work Orders for 39 sites, which is about 3.7% of the total number of construction sites, for mosquito breeding and unsanitary conditions.

How soon a Stop Work Order may be lifted is entirely dependent on how fast the contractor takes remedial action on the lapses. The contractor may contact NEA for a re-inspection as soon as he has spruced up his site. NEA will lift the Stop Work Order once the site has been reinstated to a satisfactory state.

In 2007, it took a contractor an average of 10 days to spruce up the site so that the Stop Work Order could be lifted. There were a few instances when the contractors took only one day to reinstate the site to a satisfactory state. The average cost to the contractor for each day of work stopped depends on the size and type of the project. NEA does not have nor does it compile such information. Regardless of the scale and type of their projects, all contractors should ensure that their construction sites are always satisfactorily maintained, without a need for NEA to serve Stop Work Orders on them.

A Stop Work Order is issued so that corrective work can be undertaken immediately to clean up the construction site to avert a potential disease outbreak. The inspection team's role is to ensure that environmental conditions at the site are reinstated to a satisfactory level before the site is re-opened. Therefore, the same team that issued the Stop Work Order must undertake the re-inspection to ascertain that the contractors have undertaken the appropriate measures to comply with environmental regulations

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they had previously failed to meet. I would like to assure Mdm Cynthia Phua that NEA officers carry out their duties professionally and there is no conflict of interest even though the same inspection team handles both the issuance of Stop Work Order and the re-inspection.