Lack of staff 'is not related to misuse of public land'
The Lands Department yesterday denied a lack of frontline manpower was behind an increase in the illegal use of government land, saying public education would be the long-term key to resolution of the problem.
Yesterday the South China Morning Post reported 17 land executives would lose their jobs when their contracts expire next month.
The officers are responsible for enforcing laws covering land control, such as illegal land occupation, dumping and applications to build village houses. The decision not to keep them on has sparked fears enforcement of land laws will be weakened.
'We do not agree that the inadequacy of enforcement should be held responsible for the problem of illegal occupation and use of government land,' a department spokeswoman said.
'We will do our best to tackle the problem with the resources available. In the meantime, we also appeal to the public for their co-operation and for [people to assume their] civic responsibility.'
The spokeswoman said there were 38 land executives on contract and 21 of them had had their contracts extended to next January following completion of projects they were involved in.
In all there are 265 frontline land executives. Their duties also cover lease enforcement and land resumption.
She said the department would deploy manpower flexibly, reassess its priorities, and restructure to improve efficiency.
The land executives have a heavy workload. As well as handling 3,941 complaints last year, there were 120,000 applications to build small houses outstanding at the end of the year.
Yam Sai-ling, chairman of the Land Executives Association, disagrees with the department's view that better staffing is not the key to proper land control.
'For years the department has turned a blind eye to the problem, only deploying minimal manpower to enforce land controls and leases,' he said.
The association - the union for frontline staff - is to call an emergency general meeting to discuss the job cuts and the issue of departmental manpower. Mr Yam said some members had proposed holding protests to fight for the 17 officers' jobs.
Karen Woo Lai-yan, senior environmental affairs officer of Green Power, said the job cuts would inevitably weaken enforcement of land laws to stop the destruction of valuable ecological sites such as the Tung Chung river, which was devastated by a contractor last year.
