'Serious dissatisfaction and disappointment' over her previous bureau's performance has followed Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor into her new role as chief secretary.
The criticism was levelled by a Legislative Council committee yesterday over the persistent failure by the Development Bureau to protect government land from illegal use.
It came in public accounts committee comments on the director of audit's report, released in March, which found several serious cases of illicit occupation - including a private park that took over a chunk of Tai Lam Country Park and used it for almost two decades.
The occupations 'reflected the persistent failure of the secretary for development, the director of lands and the officers who assumed the position of the land authority in Hong Kong in the past to effectively discharge their duty. ... To these, the committee expresses serious dissatisfaction and disappointment,' the report said.
Releasing the committee's report, which followed a series of hearings, chairman Philip Wong Yu-hong said: 'Land is scarce. The Lands Department has the utmost responsibility to protect government land resources from abuse.'
When Lam was minister, the Lands Department had accorded a low priority to land control, and had failed to conduct regular inspections, acting only in response to complaints and media reports, the committee said. Penalties, unchanged since 1972, were too lenient, it added.
But it commended Lam's 'decisive acts' against Tai Tong Lychee Valley in May in response to media reports.