An administrative “honour system” that relied on Hong Kong’s private sector to regulate itself created oversight loopholes and left obvious fire hazards at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate unchecked before last year’s inferno, legal counsel for an independent committee investigating the disaster has said.
In the final session of 30 days of public hearings, Victor Dawes SC said on Friday that the contractor and consultant behind the estate’s HK$336 million renovation project deserved the strongest condemnation for directly contributing to the fire by cutting corners on materials, fabricating certificates and circumventing safety requirements through deceptive means.
He noted the government also bore “a share of responsibility” for allowing corrupt players to persistently exploit a fragile regulatory framework built on the assumption that registered professionals would always discharge their duties in good faith.
“We’re not saying the government is the instigator of it all,” the lawyer said.
“But it is very reasonable for residents to expect the system to be able to protect them. Unfortunately, that was not the case in reality.”
The fire burned for about 43 hours and ravaged seven of the eight residential towers at the subsidised estate in Tai Po, killing 168 people and displacing nearly 5,000.