On the final day of hearings, lead counsel Victor Dawes SC said the contractor and consultant for the Wang Fuk Court renovation deserved the strongest condemnation.
The hearings concluded on Friday after 30 days. Victor Dawes SC said the contractor and consultant for the HK$336 million Wang Fuk Court renovation project deserved the strongest condemnation for cutting corners on materials, fabricating certificates and circumventing safety requirements.
He noted the government also bore “a share of responsibility” for allowing corrupt players to exploit a fragile regulatory framework built on the assumption that registered professionals would always act in good faith.
“We’re not saying the government is the instigator of it all,” the lawyer said. “But it is very reasonable for residents to expect the system to be able to protect them. Unfortunately, that was not the case in reality.”
The fire burned for about 43 hours and ravaged seven of the eight residential towers at the subsidised estate in Tai Po, killing 168 people and displacing nearly 5,000.
