Derek Zen Wei-peu, chairman of listed construction firm Build King Holdings, told the Post that the MTR Corp had instructed contractors across sites along the link to hand in all required paperwork known as RISC (Request for Inspection and Survey Checks) forms. The documents are used to certify completion of each work phase.

“The MTR Corp told us that it needed to check the documents that we’ve kept. It involves every construction site for the overall rail line. Now we need to dig up all the RISC forms and submit them.

“We are still tracing the documents. We are talking about a large volume of paperwork stored in containers and it takes time,” Zen said.

Police search scandal-hit Hong Kong station, leave with piles of papers

Build King holds various multibillion-dollar contracts along the line, including the external works for Admiralty station. There are a total of 10 stations along the line, and authorities earlier announced plans for thorough inspections of other stops apart from Hung Hom.

Zen, who said Leighton’s missing papers case was “outrageous”, added that he did not rule out the possibility of stakeholders destroying the forms to shun liability.

The government had already reported the case to police for investigations into suspected fraud.

“It’s common if you say you can’t locate 3 to 5 per cent of paperwork as we are handling quite a large volume of documents on each construction site. But more than 60 per cent of forms missing is certainly outrageous. This situation shouldn’t have happened,” he said.

Zen explained that the trove of documents must have been countersigned by MTR site inspectors since the contractor could move on to the next stage of work.

“Theoretically the documents must have been signed before the pouring of concrete onto the steel structure,” he said. However, he admitted that sometimes rail staff would verbally give the go-ahead to contractors and sign forms at a later stage.

“We don’t know the reason the documents are missing, as personnel who were responsible had already left. But one of the possibilities could be that some people wanted to destroy the papers to avoid liability as several heads have rolled over the scandal. This possibility cannot be ruled out.”

Zen, also the vice-chairman of Wai Kee Holdings, the parent company of Excel Concrete, responsible for the concrete supply at affected locations of Hung Hom station, said so far police had not contacted their firm for help, as their work had nothing to do with the RISC forms.

Rail project whistle-blower says contractor and MTR colluded

“I was told by several sources that Leighton had made the delayed submissions to the MTR Corp in October last year after being chased. Whether these documents were properly signed, I don’t know.

“But they are not contemporaneous records. I suspect someone wanted to evade criminal liability so the forms were not handed over to authorities,” he said.

He said despite subcontractors not being involved in the handling of RISC forms, they had took part in rounds of joint inspections with various parties from Leighton and the MTR Corp, a process before the submission of the forms for countersigning.

“For China Technology, which is the subcontractor for the South Approach Tunnel, we can affirm that all hold points had been checked by MTR inspectors,” he said.

An MTR Corp spokeswoman declined to comment, saying it was still following up on the documents while police investigations were under way.