DEVELOPERS were paid the same compensation for flats they had in the Kowloon Walled City as other owners to prevent disputes over the clearance of the site, the Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday.
Lui Hau-tuen of the City and New Territories Administration told the panel that developers had owned up to 25 per cent of the flats.
He argued that they should be treated the same as other owners, even though payments to all absentee-owners had cost $91 million on top of the statutory compensation.
One of the developers owned 101 flats in the city.
''The political intensity and the feelings of residents in the Walled City had already made the clearance difficult, and it would be unthinkable to tell developers that they would be getting less,'' Mr Lui said.
''Besides, we should not depart from the policy we applied to the others.'' Hu Fa-kuang, chairman of the Housing Authority Special Committee overseeing the clearance, echoed his concern.
''If this had not been resolved, I don't think we would have been able to solve the problem,'' he said.