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There is no lack of illegal structures in the city, as these rooftop units in Quarry Bay show. Photo: David Wong

Staff shortage, heavy workload delaying action on illegal structures, Hong Kong lawmakers told

A lack of manpower at the Buildings Department, coupled with sudden surges in workload due to major accidents, are to blame for why officers sometimes take more than 10 years to act against unauthorised structures, lawmakers have heard.

A lack of manpower at the Buildings Department, coupled with sudden surges in workload due to major accidents, are to blame for why officers sometimes take more than 10 years to act against unauthorised structures, lawmakers have heard.

The department had issued a large number of removal orders in the past decade, which required a lot of effort to follow up, buildings director Hui Siu-wai told the Legislative Council’s development panel on Tuesday.

“Manpower is tight,” Hui said. “A few years ago, the department saw some loss of manpower because of the departure of contract employees.

“A few major safety incidents had also happened in the past few years. We had to allocate extra manpower to handle the emergencies.”

Notable among accidents in recent years was the 2010 collapse of a 53-year-old tenement building on Ma Tau Wai Road, To Kwa Wan, that killed four people.

Last month, the department came under Audit Commission criticism for failing to issue, as of October, removal orders on 4,522 illegal structures that had been inspected between six months and five years earlier. Guidelines stipulate an order should be issued within 180 days after an inspection.

Even in cases where the department had issued the orders, enforcement was slow as 68,134 remained unresolved – with 21 per cent outstanding for more than six years to as long as 10 years, the commission found. Compared with the huge backlog, only 8,000-odd people had been convicted since 2010.

Under a policy in effect since April 2011, types of unauthorised building works were expanded to include rooftops and podiums, and in yards and lanes of buildings, regardless of whether these structures posed a serious hazard or environmental nuisance.

Failure to comply with a removal order warrants a fine of up to HK$200,000 and a year in jail.

Permanent secretary for development (planning and lands) Thomas Chow Tat-ming said the policy was a positive and long-term move ensuring the public’s safety, and its effects should not be judged in just a few years.

Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said the backlog showed “there is no way the department can enforce the government’s policy” and gave the impression that the department was a “toothless tiger”.

Hui said the department had begun to recruit civil service positions to clear the backlog.

The number of illegal structures that had not received removal orders had also dropped from 4,522 in October to 4,048 this month, he said.

But since the number of outstanding removal orders exceeded 60,000, the department would be unable to assess each case for the possibility of prosecution, he said. The department would take action on only those cases it deemed serious.

Still, Ng defended the removal orders as useful, as some owners had decided to remove their structures to avoid legal action.

The buildings director also pointed to the incompatibility of its system with that at the Land Registry. Officers had to input details of the cases into the computer system manually. The department would update its computers to save time and manpower.

Department data showed it had 1,173 staff in 2012 and expected this number to rise to 1,690 next year.

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