OpinionWorking well with civil service vital to keep city functioning

In a newsroom, every piece of news is edited, checked and double checked before it can be printed or aired, but even that cannot always guarantee it is 100 per cent error-free, but at least, there is a system of checks.

But when an error occurs in something written by a senior government official, who is to blame? Is there a check system? If so, is it working properly?

That was the puzzle when Development Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po raised many eyebrows by suggesting in his blog the week before last that certain land falling within Hong Kong's country parks could be considered for housing. Unfortunately, he got his facts wrong. He estimated that country parks take up 70 per cent of Hong Kong's total land, but it should be 40 per cent.

An official correction was issued by the bureau the next day. But many wondered if Chan checked the data with his bureau or if any of his colleagues noticed it? The episode triggered concerns on how political appointees like Chan and their civil servant colleagues can work together more closely to avoid mistakes, especially factual ones.

This comes back to a long-standing question: Who can run Hong Kong well?

Look at the background of our three chief executives. We had Tung Chee-hwa who was from the business sector; then Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, a career civil servant; and now Leung Chun-ying, once a professional surveyor. It was seen as Beijing trying different ideas about what type of candidates were most suited to run the city. It seems no definite conclusion has been drawn, given the eventful past 16 years.