My Take | Public confidence handicapped by fear
The Carrie Lam administration has made sure that the inquiry into the construction scandal at the Sha Tin-Central rail link will only look into the problems at Hung Hom station. But how will public faith be restored unless the short-sighted government allows the entire project and the MTR itself to be put under the microscope?
Democrat lawmaker Tanya Chan wants a key subcontractor to be included as a witness in a high-level inquiry into the construction scandal at the MTR’s HK$97.1 billion Sha Tin-Central link. The city’s most expensive rail project ever, it is also much delayed and way over budget.
Chan’s request is well and good. Wing & Kwong Steel Engineering Co – a subcontractor hired by Leighton Contractors (Asia) for steel works at the Hung Hom station – should testify.
But I have more faith in a parallel criminal police probe now under way. Given the litany of construction lapses, lax supervision and possible cover-ups at not one but three stations along the link, it looks like some people should go to jail.
But the mandate of the commission of inquiry, headed by former top court judge Michael Hartmann, is restricted to looking into the problems at Hung Hom. The Carrie Lam administration made sure of that. Logically, it should have allowed the commission to also cover troubles that have been identified at the stations in To Kwa Wan and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. But who knows what such an expanded mandate might uncover?
Chan says the commission should look at “the whole truth”. But that’s unlikely, with the inquiry’s target restricted to one station. In fact, the whole controversial project – and the MTR itself – should be put under the microscope.