Audit Commission urges rehabus to scale up services

The Audit Commission on Wednesday called on a minibus operator catering for the disabled to beef up its services, saying it turned down requests for pre-booked trips even though vehicles were available. In its report, the watchdog said the government-subsidised rehabus operator rejected 21,425 orders for door-to-door transportation in 2023, double the figure recorded in 2019. But there were on average nine to 42 spare vehicles on a weekday from 2019 to last year, the body said. The commission added that around one-fifth of the 121 fixed routes averaged six or even fewer passengers a month, while the waiting list for services had become longer, with someone on it for almost two years. Routes running between hospitals, clinics and MTR stations operated by another company were also under-used, the watchdog said. Among 12 hospital routes, three were transporting zero passengers 80 percent of the time in 2023. The watchdog said the operators should review their routes and improve patronage. It added the Transport Department should look at requests to purchase more rehabus vehicles carefully, noting the operators did not report on the utilisation of existing vehicles when asking the government for funding to buy new ones from 2021 to 2023. 124 vehicles costing HK$135 million in total were procured from 2018 to 2023. The Commissioner for Transport, for her part, said she agreed with the audit recommendations.