MTR Subcontractor Says It's Been Made A Scapegoat

The subcontractor responsible for reinforcement bar fixing works at the approach tunnels of MTR’s Hung Hom station told a Commission of Inquiry that it was being made a scapegoat though all it did was follow the instructions given by the main contractor, Leighton.

The commission heard on day one of its extended inquiry that “a significant number” of reinforcement bars were either not properly connected, or not connected at all to couplers at three constructions joints, as well as a parallel track area.

The subcontractor responsible for bar-fixing works in these areas, Wing & Kwong, testified that its contractor, Leighton, was responsible for supplying material such as the rebars.

Wing & Kwong’s lawyer, Benson Tsoi, said on Monday that Leighton had purchased the wrong bars which resulted in what he described as a “square peg and round hole situation”, and there was simply no way that the bars could be screwed into the couplers.

Tsoi said Wing & Kwong’s site supervisor, Ng Man-chun, had informed Leighton’s engineer, Henry Lai, about the problem.

But Ng quoted Lai as instructing him to “just try to screw in the bars as much as possible ... because it’s not as if the wall would collapse”.

Tsoi said because Wing & Kwong was simply a subcontractor, it had to do what it was told.

And because all works had to be inspected by Leighton, Tsoi said: “Nobody in the right mind would, on a frolic of their own, just screw in two to three threads hoping those who inspect the works wouldn’t notice the problem ... unless it was the inspector himself who asked for it to be done”.

Wing & Kwong stressed it should not be made the scapegoat for simply complying with Leighton's instructions.

But Lai, the Leighton engineer, said in his witness statement that he did not recall giving such instructions to Wing & Kwong.

And Leighton is seeking HK$40 million in damages from Wing & Kwong, alleging it of bad workmanship, while denying that the defective joints had anything to do with the use of wrong rebars.

Remedial works have been completed for the three defective stitch joints. But nothing has been done so far to correct the flaws at one of the parallel track areas.