MTR Officials Now Say Far More Papers Missing

In a shocking revelation, MTR officials told lawmakers on Friday that the number of construction work documents that are missing is far greater than what they had told the government and the public two days back.

The government had said that MTR officials told them that 40 percent of the records that contractor, Leighton Asia, was supposed to provide to the MTR had disappeared – implying that they had the rest of them.

But officials now say, in fact, they only have 40 percent of the Request for Inspection and Survey Checks (RISC) forms and the remaining 60 percent are missing.

They also told Legco's railways subcommittee that construction work on tunnels and sidetracks at the scandal-plagued Hung Hom Station were allowed to proceed even though officials did not receive the vast majority of documents they were supposed to check and sign.

Lawmakers were also told that for the north approach tunnel, MTR officials had received 27 percent of the RISC forms, 37 percent for the sidings and 64 percent for the south approach tunnel.

Transport Secretary Frank Chan told lawmakers that the government has asked law enforcement agencies to look into whether there has been any fraudulent activity in relation to the missing documents.

Chan also said that the Highways Department will soon inspect the quality of the construction in other MTR stations, beginning with To Kwa Wan and Diamond Hill.

The railway operator's managing director, Jacob Kam, said he understands that the situation is far from satisfactory, admitting that the MTR's performance in managing the project has been poor.

Democratic Party legislator Lam Cheuk-ting alleged that MTR staff had conspired with Leighton to delete the records, saying they must have existed at one point, otherwise workers could not have proceeded to the next phase of construction.

But Kam said he was told by his frontline workers that they had signed the forms at the Hung Hom site, but Leighton never sent MTR management these records as required.