Questions mount over City University roof collapse investigation panel after vice-president withdraws
Union leaders criticise lack of independent members with only one member from outside the institution on probe
The independence of a newly-formed panel, responsible for investigating last week’s roof collapse at City University, came into question yesterday for only including one member from outside the institution.
Concerns were raised after the university’s vice-president Sunny Lee Wai-kwong withdrew from the committee, citing a possible conflict of interest, as the institution updated the membership of the eight-person team.
Lee was in charge of CityU’s green roof projects, which earlier this year laid grass on the rooftop which collapsed.
But Lee Chak-hin, a student union representative, criticised the lack of independent experts on the panel, saying only one member was from outside the university – Professor Chung Kwok-fai, associate head of Polytechnic University’s department of civil and environmental engineering.
John Tse Wing-ling, chairman of the CityU staff union, said the committee should be led by an outsider. “If most people in the eight-person committee are from City University, the credibility is low,” he said.
