FANNY W. Y. FUNG
FANNY.FUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 08 October, 2015, 2:20pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 08 October, 2015, 3:29pm
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam came to the defence of civil servants over the lead-in-water scandal. Photo: Sam Tsang
No civil servant has been found to have bypassed any rules or procedures in the monitoring of water quality even though the system has flaws, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor says of the problems exposed in the lead-in-water scandal that broke three months ago.
The number two in the government made the remark during a special meeting of the Legislative Council’s house committee, two days after a committee under the Housing Authority announced interim findings of a review into the water contamination problem and two weeks after a task force chaired by deputy director of water supplies Wong Chung-leung released a preliminary investigation report.
Both reports concluded there were problems with the mechanism to monitor water quality and neither named any individual as responsible, triggering doubts from critics.
“The system did have shortages. However, it does not mean public office bearers failed to perform the duty required of them at the time that the system was in place,” said Lam in response to a question by Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong lawmaker Christopher Chung Shu-kun. The chief secretary has been chairing cross-departmental meetings to deal with the matter since July
Her comment immediately drew fire from Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing. “The two committees have yet to complete their investigations while the independent investigation commission has yet to start its hearings. How can you conclude now that you can’t see any public office bearer having responsibility?”
Lam clarified that she did not mean no one had responsibility. “What we have realised by now is that everyone lacked awareness beforehand. But back then the procedure did not require the Water Supplies Department to test the level of lead before it issued approvals for water supply systems in new buildings. That’s why we cannot blame our colleagues for having failed to conduct such tests. The responsibility of contractors was clear under the contracts,” the chief secretary said.
An inquiry commission headed by High Court judge Andrew Chan Hing-wai will start hearings into the scandal on October 20 at the Former French Mission Building, which until last month was home to the Court of Final Appeal.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1865184/no-civil-servant-bypassed-rules-hong-kong-lead
