Civil servants’ vigilance in guarding against potential procurement scams falls short of public expectations, Hong Kong’s treasury minister has admitted, pledging to conduct site visits and prevent the process from becoming a “robotic” arrangement of “checking boxes”.

But Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu stressed on Tuesday that the principle of “the lowest bidder wins” did not apply to government procurement procedures this time around and denied that it was the cause of a recent bottled water scandal.

A review by the Audit Commission found that the Government Logistics Department repeatedly failed to follow up on suspicious signs, giving the green light to a company that allegedly used fraudulent documents to win the tender and supply substandard products.

On Monday, Hui, who chaired a task force set up in the wake of the scandal in August to review the government’s procurement process, announced six preliminary recommendations.

They include stipulating specific due diligence requirements, expanding the roles of the logistics department’s audit team and revising standard government contracts to empower authorities to conduct site inspections during the vetting process.

Hui said he hoped to improve the system to keep pace with a complex business environment crawling with scams.