Union chief wants more
The ombudsman's report does not go far enough and a new investigation is needed, the head of the lifeguards' union said.
Alex Kwok Siu-kit said the probe could not be called thorough because the watchdog's staff had not contacted him - even though he and his members had been closely involved with the worm infestations and had even been blamed for causing them.
'It just doesn't make sense that they didn't contact me at all,' he said. 'I called the police on September 1 about the Hammer Hill Road infestation when the Leisure and Cultural Services Department failed to do so and instead destroyed the evidence.'
Mr Kwok, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Lifeguards' Union, also said the apology to the public from the department's director, Anissa Wong Sean-yee, meant nothing to him. It ought to apologise to lifeguards for implicating them.
'They tried to tell everybody that the lifeguards did it - we were carrying out industrial action at that time and [Assistant Director of Leisure Services Paul] Cheung Kwok-kee used that chance to try to put us in an ugly position,' he said. The ombudsman's report only said it was 'unfortunate that the bloodworm incidents coincided with the LCSD dispute with its lifeguards'.
He said the whole issue was one of honesty and the report had not addressed that. 'I will try to rally legislative councillors to form a special committee to investigate this,' he said. 'Somebody has to be responsible.'
The union chief said he had already contacted lawmakers Leung Kwok-hung and Lee Cheuk-yan and would ensure the matter was not dropped until he had seen 'justice and fairness'.
