Leighton 'too Busy' For MTR Paperwork, Lawyer Says

A lawyer for the company responsible for building an extension to Hung Hom MTR Station told a construction scandal inquiry on Tuesday that thousands of missing documents related to the project had not been lost as claimed, but are simply "outstanding".

Months after it was revealed that 60 percent of the crucial Request for Inspection and Survey Checks (RISC) forms could not be found, Leighton lawyer Paul Shieh said this was because the company's staff were too busy to complete them.

During his opening remarks at the government-appointed Commission of Inquiry into flawed building work at the MTR station, Shieh said the firm's engineering staff had been "too overwhelmed and busy with their workload” to fill out the forms.

He added that the absence of the documents, which are used to certify the completion of each work phase, does not mean that inspections had not taken place and there is evidence to show that they were carried out properly.

Shieh conceded that steel reinforcement bars bought for the project were the wrong size and shape for the couplers they were to be screwed into.

But he denied a subcontractor's claim at the inquiry that it had been told to just "screw the bars in as much as possible", saying the problematic connections made were down to the subcontractor's poor workmanship.

On Monday, the subcontractor, Wing & Kwong, said it was being made a scapegoat for the project's failings.

The inquiry had already wrapped up once, but was told to hold further hearings into fresh allegations of substandard work at Hung Hom MTR Station, which is being developed for the opening of the new Shatin-Central Link.