An official tendering system designed to curb anti-competitive conduct is powerless to combat engineering firms colluding to manipulate Hong Kong’s lucrative building maintenance market, a public inquiry into the city’s deadliest fire in decades has heard.
Testifying on the 21st day of an independent committee’s hearing, three Urban Renewal Authority (URA) officials said on Thursday that the statutory body had neither the capacity nor the resources to combat bid-rigging linked to estates’ renovation projects.
They added that the URA would not interfere with homeowners’ decisions even if it detected suspicious activity during the bidding process.
The blaze at Wang Fuk Court broke out last November as the estate was undergoing renovations, with various potential fire hazards uncovered in the aftermath.
The blaze engulfed seven of the Tai Po estate’s eight blocks and raged for around 43 hours. The tragedy resulted in 168 deaths and nearly 5,000 people being displaced.
The authority’s role in the fire came under scrutiny at the hearing’s latest session as the committee learned that a third-party preliminary review commissioned by the body estimated an exterior overhaul of the estate would cost just more than HK$102 million (US$13 million).
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