A senior surveyor at a government inspection unit has admitted tipping off the renovation consultant ahead of site checks at Wang Fuk Court before the property went up in flames, a public inquiry has heard.
Victor Dawes, chief counsel of the independent committee investigating the fatal fire, questioned Andy Ku, a senior maintenance surveyor at the Housing Bureau’s Independent Inspection Unit (ICU), on Wednesday.
Dawes presented the committee with the written statement of witness Ku, in which the senior investigator said the ICU had “no particular role in reviewing or confirming the quality, reliability and integrity of consultants”.
The committee previously heard in March that one of the directors of Will Power Architects, the consultancy firm overseeing large-scale maintenance work at the Tai Po housing complex, had failed to perform his duties as a “registered inspector” (RI).
“The NI’s job, in fact, is to act as a regulator. If it’s not up to you to keep them in check, who else would?” Dawes asked Ku.
Where responded that the surveillance system is essentially “self-regulatory” and that the ICU does not have a formal audit system.
The committee also heard on Wednesday that for most of its inspections, the ICU had notified an employee of Will Power, who was also a representative for RI. The inspector himself was not there for most of the checks in the ICU.
Dawes noted that the ICU’s inspection practice deviated from the norm with other government departments, such as the Department of Labor and the Department of Buildings.
The lead lawyer also told the hearing that the ICU had conducted a total of 10 inspections at Wang Fuk Court, of which only two were held without prior notice. One of these two inspections was an impromptu check, which Ku himself conducted after a medical appointment in the same district.
“If you didn’t have a medical appointment at Tai Po that day, there wouldn’t have been an inspection?” Dawes asked. Where agreed.
Dawes then showed the committee footage from the screen ICU Maintenance Surveyor Amanda Lau Text Chats scheduling an inspection with the RI representative, who then notified the contractor, Prestige Construction & Engineering. Ku confirmed that Lau acted on his orders.
After the fire, the ICU began conducting unannounced inspections, Ku said.
Dawes asked if the new arrangements meant the ICU realized it had problems with its old system. Where he replied: “There was room for improvement.”
Scaffold nets, foam boards
Kue was also concerned about his unit’s oversight of scaffolding netting and foam boards, which a preliminary investigation has blamed for contributing to the fire’s spread.
Chief Counsel brought ICU fire retardancy checks of scaffold nets used at Wang Fuk Court.
He asked Ku why he told the Department of Buildings that the nets were up to standard, despite the ICU’s own test showing that the nets continued to burn for more than 10 seconds before the flames were extinguished.
Ku said that after two retests of the same net, the net did not catch fire.
Dawes showed the committee a fire retardancy certificate and asked Ku if the ICU could verify the legitimacy of the certificate and if it corresponded to the same number of scaffold nets.
Ku said that the unit could not verify, as it relied on the word of the contractor.
regardless of residents’ complaintsthe senior surveyor told the hearing that he did not notice that the property’s windows were covered with foam boards during an ICU inspection in September because the scaffolding nets were in the road.
A month later, the contractor and inspector told Ku that only three floors would have windows covered with foam boards whenever the demolition work was done.
Kue said he did not ask to see a fire retardancy certificate for the foam boards as he believed phasing in would mitigate fire risks. “There was no basis for seeking a certificate,” he said.
Dawes scrolled through about a dozen photos from the site, most of which showed foam boarded windows in plain view. The photos were part of a slide report that Ku had seen earlier.
Dawes questioned how Ku could be unaware of the foam boards, which the government surveyor said he was “focused on concrete work”.
Ku added that in retrospect, he “had been lied to” and that he did not pursue the matter because there were no further complaints from residents.
