Frank Chan, Officials Grilled Over Bridge Scandal

The transport secretary and Highways Department officials came in for heavy criticism over missing bridge construction records on Friday, with lawmakers across party lines accusing them of "incompetence".

The explanation by secretary Frank Chan and the officials as to why a contractor for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge had failed to submit some 10,000 forms, failed to satisfy some legislators.

The DAB's Lau Kwok-fan questioned whether the department's supervision exists in name only, while New People's Party chairwoman Regina Ip wondered whether officials carried out any site visits at all.

Opposition lawmaker Andrew Wan became agitated during the meeting and accused the officials of avoiding answering his questions.

Meanwhile, Neo Democrat Gary Fan said when similar problems arose with construction at Hung Hom Station, the government blamed the MTR for lax supervision. But now the government officials themselves have been doing the same thing, he said.

Officials admitted that the late submission of the forms was not ideal, but said the independent consultant they hired had gone through all the construction records and confirmed the works are safe.

Chan said officials will look into how to strengthen the monitoring of the submission of Request for Inspection and Survey Checking (RISC) forms and highways officials will carry out spot checks.

Officials had admitted overnight that that they were first told in 2016 that a contractor working on a section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge had failed to submit key construction documents.