My Take | It’s time to read the riot act to cheating contractors
A slap on the wrist for faking test results for large and small infrastructure projects is no longer enough; these firms must be brought to book
So, it turns out a much-favoured government consultant has been producing fake test data for years. It’s bad enough that staff at Jacobs China have allegedly conspired to extensively alter the data of concrete samples from the mega Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge project, leading to 21 arrests by the Independent Commission against Corruption. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the lab service contractor.
The Civil Engineering and Development Department said Jacobs China had doctored a total of 130 tests at 55 other projects, including the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital and a tunnel along the Central-Wan Chai bypass, near the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter.
Worse, officials now suspect an extra 116 tests from the bridge could have been compromised, on top of the 210 already exposed.
Presumably, the government will have to recheck sites at those 55 projects, in addition to the millions of dollars that are being incurred from carrying out new tests at the cross-border bridge. What will be the total cost?
Jacobs China has been barred from bidding for government contracts for one year for the bridge fiasco. But Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said the contractor should be banned permanently in light of the new disclosure.