Recently (May 8), the Guangdong Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "Notice on Carrying Out the 2023 Special Inspection of Construction Safety for Housing and Municipal Engineering Projects".

Starting from May 2023, through government purchase of services, third-party professional institutions are commissioned to carry out special inspections of construction safety for housing and municipal engineering projects across the province.

Inspection method: No separate notice, go straight to the site for inspection

■ No separate notice will be issued for each inspection; the inspection team will go directly to the site to conduct inspections.

■ Projects to be inspected are randomly selected; in principle, no fewer than 18 projects will be spot-checked in each city.

■ Local housing and urban-rural development authorities shall arrange law enforcement personnel to participate throughout the process.

■ After the inspection, each inspection team shall provide feedback on inspection opinions to the inspected project and issue a "On-site Inspection Problem Notification Form", which shall be signed for receipt by the responsible person of the project department;

■ If major production safety accidents hazards are found at the construction site, it shall be ordered to stop work immediately for rectification.‍

Inspections carried out in four zones

Zone 1 (6 cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Huizhou) special inspection undertaking unit: Guangzhou Construction Engineering Supervision Co., Ltd.

Zone 2 (5 cities: Zhuhai, Zhanjiang, Maoming, Yangjiang, Jiangmen) special inspection undertaking unit: Guangdong Heavy Industry Construction Supervision Co., Ltd.

Zone 3 (5 cities: Shantou, Jieyang, Chaozhou, Shanwei, Meizhou) special inspection undertaking unit: Guangdong Provincial Construction Engineering Quality and Safety Testing General Station Co., Ltd.

Zone 4 (5 cities: Shaoguan, Qingyuan, Heyuan, Zhaoqing, Yunfu) special inspection undertaking unit: Shenzhen Ruijie Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd.

Key sampling targets

Inspection targets are mainly selected from the following scope:

(1) Provincial key engineering projects.

(2) Public building projects such as schools, hospitals, sports venues, exhibition halls, etc.

(3) Municipal engineering projects.

(4) Tunnel engineering projects.

(5) Types of engineering projects with frequent accidents in the past two years, etc.

Inspection content

1. Implementation of main responsibilities.

■ Implementation of the system of responsible persons leading inspections quarterly, monthly, and weekly, and the investigation and rectification of major accident hazards;

■ The presence and performance of key personnel of the construction, supervision, and construction units at their posts, and the comprehensive implementation of the "safety log" system, etc.

2. On-site physical inspection of the construction site.

■ Focus on inspecting the construction of dangerous and major projects such as deep foundation pits, tall formwork, lifting and hoisting and lifting machinery installation and dismantling projects, scaffolding projects, tunnel projects, as well as temporary electricity use and fire safety; safety protection for confined space operations, work at heights, and edge and opening areas; and personnel working with certificates, etc.

3. Performance of duties by competent authorities.

■ Including but not limited to carrying out full-coverage precise investigations of housing and municipal engineering projects under construction;

■ Investigating major safety risks and hazards in accordance with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development's "Criteria for Determining Major Production Safety Accident Hazards in Housing and Municipal Engineering Projects (2022 Edition)", etc.

Penalties: Work stoppage, temporary suspension of certificates, restriction from undertaking business, criminal liability

Municipal inspections, strict rectification.

■ For those who fail to carry out self-inspection and self-correction effectively, or fail to seriously rectify and eliminate safety hazards found in special inspections, work shall be ordered to stop without exception;

■ For those who fail to complete rectification of major production safety accident hazards within the time limit, the certificate-issuing authority shall be requested to temporarily suspend the construction enterprise's safety production license without exception, and credit punishment in the construction market shall be implemented in accordance with laws and regulations.

Provincial spot checks, strengthened punishment.

■ If major production safety accident hazards are still found, the corresponding responsible entities shall be punished by temporary suspension up to revocation of the construction enterprise's safety production license without exception;

■ In serious cases, they shall be restricted by law from undertaking business in the province's construction market;

■ For those who fail to thoroughly rectify safety hazards and risk construction operations, once verified, the relevant responsible persons shall be transferred to judicial authorities for criminal liability.

Other:

This special safety inspection has a long duration and covers a wide range. All localities are requested to submit the list of projects under construction (Attachment 1) and the receipt of the liaison officer list (Attachment 2) before May 16.

Original document:

To the housing and urban-rural development authorities of all cities at or above the prefecture level; the transportation bureaus of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, and Zhongshan; the Foshan Rail Transit Bureau; the water affairs bureaus of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Heyuan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Yangjiang, Zhanjiang, and Maoming; the water conservancy bureaus of Foshan and Qingyuan; and all relevant units:

In order to implement the spirit of the national and provincial video conference on tunnel construction safety and the video scheduling conference on the housing and municipal engineering safety production governance action of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and to implement the work deployment of the "Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Doing a Good Job in Consolidating and Improving the Safety Production Governance Action for Housing and Municipal Engineering Projects" (Jian Ban Zhi Han [2023] No. 81), further consolidate the main responsibility for safety production of all construction parties, address prominent construction safety issues, improve the province's construction safety management level, and effectively prevent and control major risks, in accordance with the key work tasks arranged by our department this year, our department, through government purchase of services, commissions third-party professional institutions to carry out special inspections of construction safety for housing and municipal engineering projects across the province. The relevant matters are hereby notified as follows:

I. Time arrangement

The inspection work is scheduled from May to November 2023.

II. Inspection scope

According to the basic requirements of "double random, one open" (random selection of inspection targets and inspectors, and timely public disclosure of inspection results), and in combination with the key points of construction safety supervision, inspection targets are mainly selected from the following scope:

(1) Provincial key engineering projects.

(2) Public building projects such as schools, hospitals, sports venues, exhibition halls, etc.

(3) Municipal engineering projects.

(4) Tunnel engineering projects.

(5) Types of engineering projects with frequent accidents in the past two years, etc.

III. Inspection grouping

Zone 1 (6 cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Huizhou) special inspection undertaking unit: Guangzhou Construction Engineering Supervision Co., Ltd.

Zone 2 (5 cities: Zhuhai, Zhanjiang, Maoming, Yangjiang, Jiangmen) special inspection undertaking unit: Guangdong Heavy Industry Construction Supervision Co., Ltd.

Zone 3 (5 cities: Shantou, Jieyang, Chaozhou, Shanwei, Meizhou) special inspection undertaking unit: Guangdong Provincial Construction Engineering Quality and Safety Testing General Station Co., Ltd.

Zone 4 (5 cities: Shaoguan, Qingyuan, Heyuan, Zhaoqing, Yunfu) special inspection undertaking unit: Shenzhen Ruijie Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd.

IV. Inspection methods and content

(I) Inspection methods.

No separate notice will be issued for each inspection; the inspection team will go directly to the site to conduct inspections. Based on the list of projects under construction submitted by each city, the inspection team will randomly select projects for inspection; in principle, no fewer than 18 projects will be spot-checked in each city. At the same time, work spot checks will be conducted on the housing and urban-rural development authorities of relevant cities, and local housing and urban-rural development authorities shall arrange law enforcement personnel to participate throughout the process. After the inspection, each inspection team shall provide feedback on inspection opinions to the inspected project and issue a "On-site Inspection Problem Notification Form", which shall be signed for receipt by the responsible person of the project department; if major production safety accident hazards are found at the construction site, the inspection team shall promptly report to the local competent authority and the Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the local competent authority shall order immediate work stoppage for rectification. The inspection team shall promptly collect the rectification completion status.

(II) Inspection content.

1. Implementation of main responsibilities. The performance of safety production duties by all participating parties in accordance with the law, with focus on the establishment and improvement of the safety production responsibility system and management system, including but not limited to the implementation of the system of the enterprise's main responsible person, the person in charge of safety, and the person in charge of the safety management organization leading inspections quarterly, monthly, and weekly, and the investigation and rectification of major accident hazards; the presence and performance of key personnel of the construction, supervision, and construction units at their posts and the comprehensive implementation of the "safety log" system; the establishment and improvement of the safety management guarantee system for hazard sources and the safety management and control system for dangerous and major projects; the improvement of the engineering quality and safety manual system and the promotion of project safety standardization assessment, etc.

2. On-site physical inspection of the construction site. The implementation of safety production measures at the construction site, with focus on the construction of dangerous and major projects such as deep foundation pits, tall formwork, lifting and hoisting and lifting machinery installation and dismantling projects, scaffolding projects, tunnel projects, as well as temporary electricity use and fire safety; safety protection for confined space operations, work at heights, and edge and opening areas; personnel working with certificates; the implementation of rectification of safety hazards found by competent authorities, safety supervision institutions, enterprises, and projects, especially the thorough investigation and rectification of major safety risks and hazards, etc.

3. Performance of duties by competent authorities. The performance of regulatory duties by local housing and urban-rural development departments and supervision institutions, with focus on the implementation of the housing and municipal engineering safety production governance action consolidation and improvement work, including but not limited to carrying out full-coverage precise investigations of housing and municipal engineering projects under construction, establishing ledgers of major accident hazards and major dangerous situations in housing and municipal engineering projects, conducting at least one inspection per month for risk enterprises and projects included in key monitoring, and investigating major safety risks and hazards in accordance with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development's "Criteria for Determining Major Production Safety Accident Hazards in Housing and Municipal Engineering Projects (2022 Edition)", etc.

V. Work requirements

(1) Enterprise self-inspection, full cooperation. All parties involved in housing and municipal engineering projects across the province shall immediately carry out self-inspection and self-correction, establish hazard ledgers, formulate rectification plans, implement closed-loop management of hazard rectification, and submit problem ledgers and rectification implementation status to local housing and urban-rural development authorities. Cooperate conscientiously with the special safety inspections as required. Engineering projects found to intentionally obstruct, hinder, or interfere with the special safety inspection work will be truthfully recorded and publicly exposed.

(2) Municipal inspections, strict rectification. Local housing and urban-rural development authorities shall conduct full-coverage re-inspections and re-examinations, urge all parties involved in the project to implement the enterprise's main responsibility for safety production, strictly investigate and punish illegal and non-compliant acts, and urge rectification within a time limit. For those who fail to carry out self-inspection and self-correction effectively, or fail to seriously rectify and eliminate safety hazards found in special inspections, work shall be ordered to stop without exception; for those who fail to complete rectification of major production safety accident hazards within the time limit, the certificate-issuing authority shall be requested to temporarily suspend the construction enterprise's safety production license without exception, and credit punishment in the construction market shall be implemented in accordance with laws and regulations.

(3) Provincial spot checks, strengthened punishment. The Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development dispatches inspection teams to spot-check the rectification of projects where major production safety accident hazards were found during inspections. If major production safety accident hazards are still found, the corresponding responsible entities shall be punished by temporary suspension up to revocation of the construction enterprise's safety production license without exception; in serious cases, they shall be restricted by law from undertaking business in the province's construction market; for those who fail to thoroughly rectify safety hazards and risk construction operations, once verified, in accordance with the Amendment (XI) to the Criminal Law and the "Criteria for Determining Major Production Safety Accident Hazards in Housing and Municipal Engineering Projects (2022 Edition)", the relevant responsible persons shall be transferred to judicial authorities for criminal liability.

(4) Strict discipline, report violations. Third-party inspectors shall be objective and fair, law-abiding, and honest and self-disciplined. All parties involved in the inspected engineering projects are welcome to supervise the special safety inspection work throughout the process. If violations of relevant national laws and regulations, professional ethics, and work discipline are found, they may be reported in writing with real names to the Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development; once verified, they will be seriously dealt with. The mailing address for receiving written materials reflecting the situation: Engineering Quality and Safety Supervision Division, Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Yuecai Building, No. 483 Dongfeng Middle Road, Guangzhou City.

This special safety inspection has a long duration and covers a wide range. All housing and urban-rural development authorities of cities at or above the prefecture level are requested to arrange one business backbone as the inspection work liaison officer, and submit the list of projects under construction (Attachment 1) and the receipt of the liaison officer list (Attachment 2) to the Engineering Quality and Safety Supervision Division of our department before May 16. Please also submit the relevant rectification and law enforcement investigation and punishment status to our department within one month after the inspection work of the special safety inspection team is completed.

Guangdong Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development

April 28, 2023