Hong Kong leader John Lee apologised on Thursday for the fire that killed 168 people in the city last November.
Lee was speaking as he released an independent report that held four government departments partially responsible for a fire that erupted after more than a year of safety complaints.
He promised swift but extensive reforms to the city’s building industry and regulatory system. The more than 1,000-page report by the judge-led panel detailed governance and supervisory failings, including widespread bid rigging.
“The fire has been put out, but the reform has only just begun,” the report stated.
“The Committee finds that no Government department took effective ownership of various fire safety issues and complaints about fire hazards fell into a vacuum.”
The fire spread through seven 31-storey tower blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex, which was undergoing renovation work in the northern Tai Po district and shrouded in dust netting and scaffolding.
Residents had repeatedly raised safety concerns over the work for more than a year before the fire, which the report said was most likely started by a “glowing source ... likely a cigarette”.
It was the deadliest in the city since 1948. Thousands of residents were displaced after their homes became uninhabitable.
“As chief executive and head of the government, I am deeply saddened,” Lee said before bowing with seven other officials in a rare show of official contrition.
“On behalf of the SAR [Special Administrative Region] government, I offer my apologies to the victims and the public at large.”
Lee also announced the resignation of Hong Kong’s housing secretary Winnie Ho – the first official to resign over the inferno.
Wang Fuk residents and other critics have in recent months expressed anger at a perceived lack of government accountability.
The Hong Kong government has set up an independent team to investigate which officials should be held accountable and to outline disciplinary actions.
Lee, whose five-year term ends next June, did not directly respond to press questions over whether he would seek another term, saying “implementing the reforms is the goal” rather than personal matters.
Lee said Hong Kong’s chief secretary Eric Chan will lead a steering committee to oversee reforms advocated in the report, which will include laws to criminalise bid rigging across the construction industry.
The committee report said contractor Prestige Construction & Engineering Co Ltd and project consultant Will Power Architects Co Ltd should bear primary responsibility.
At least 25 criminal charges related to the Wang Fuk Court fire have been made against Prestige, Will Power and seven individuals, including manslaughter, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and tax evasion.
But the report also went further, outlining widespread unlawful and dubious construction practices as a “corrupt ecosystem”.
The rigging of bids in the industry involved many different parties, some linked to triad organised crime gangs, it said.
The committee held 30 hearings this year with 80 witnesses, including residents, property management and renovation personnel, engineering and fire experts, government officials and regulators. It evaluated more than one million files and submissions as it investigated the cause of the fire and reviewed oversight of building renovations.
Before the report’s release, critics had said the committee lacked the statutory powers of a full public inquiry which could potentially limit its ability to establish the full facts and accountability.
Some groups in the Asian business hub have called for more transparency and accountability, amid warnings from authorities that any attempts to politicise the disaster would be severely punished. – Reuters
Source: The Irish Times · Clare Jim
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