Swire Coca-Cola has won a HK$31.9 million (US$4 million) contract to supply Bonaqua water to some Hong Kong government offices, following a HK$52.9 million procurement scandal last year.
According to a Government Logistics Department notice, Swire Coca-Cola was awarded the 27-month contract on Tuesday to supply more than 1.46 million bottles of drinking water to offices on Hong Kong Island and parts of the outlying islands. The selection followed an open tender launched in December.
In its tender documents, the department added several requirements, including requiring suppliers to prove they held a market share over the past 10 years, had a minimum of 50 sales channels and possessed a daily delivery capacity of at least 100 orders.
If the bottled water was to be imported, the supplier must meet the qualifications of a food importer and submit a safety test report. If the total bid price exceeded HK$15 million, bidders must pass a financial review, pay a contract deposit and allow authorities to conduct an on-site inspection.
In June 2023, Swire Coca-Cola also won a bid to supply 1.35 million bottles of drinking water for HK$40.5 million.
The government came under scrutiny last August over a three-year HK$52.9 million bottled water supply contract awarded to Xin Ding Xin Trade. It was the first time a mainland Chinese supplier had won the contract, supposedly saving the city’s 170,000 civil servants an average of about HK$16.2 million a year on bottled water supplies.
The company allegedly submitted fake documents and is suspected of defrauding the department and breaching the Trade Descriptions Ordinance.
