Editorial | Hong Kong’s sweeping fire safety reforms are only the first step
South China Morning Post · SCMP Editorial ·
The burden now falls on officials to follow through on their pledge: not only to overhaul legislation and government work practices, but also to hold errant civil servants to account.
Reform has taken centre stage as Hong Kong officials proposed sweeping legislative and institutional changes in building and fire safety in the wake of a damning inquiry report on the blaze that killed 168 people and displaced 1,984 families at Wang Fuk Court last year. The pledges by the top leader and the ministers implicated in the independent probe to fix the underlying issues that led to the city’s deadliest inferno in decades are being tested by how they will be put into practice. But the overhaul, which came almost a year after the tragedy, is a critical act of accountability that must be vigorously implemented, lest the problems persist and more lives are endangered.
The government has been thorough in its response. It plans to criminalise bid-rigging, set up a new body to support renovation, tighten supervision of renovation works, enhance cross-departmental data-sharing and overhaul building management, along with investigations and disciplinary actions for civil servants who failed in their duties. Four government bodies were named for criticism by the inquiry committee. The government is well aware that accountability and revamp go hand in hand and that the two do not end with the resignation of the housing chief and the tabling of an ambitious reform blueprint. A rigorous implementation that results in substantive changes in work culture and practices remains the key.
Ministers in charge of the proposed changes have shed more light on the way forward over the past few days. They also apologised individually and stood by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s decision for them to stay and follow through on the reforms.
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