Chief Secretary Carrie Lam urged to come clean on architect for Hong Kong Palace Museum

Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan says she may invoke special Legco powers to find out if cultural district authority board knew about museum plan when it scrapped performance venue

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Chief Secretary Carrie Lam (front centre) attends a street run in Kwun Tong. Lam is expected to resign this week to run in the chief executive race in March. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 4:00pm, 8 Jan 2017Updated: 12:09pm, 10 Jan 2017

Pressure is mounting on Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to explain why a top architect was “engaged” to work on plans for the controversial HK$3.5-billion Hong Kong Palace Museum before culture chiefs responsible for the site on which it would be built were told about it.

Lam – who is expected to resign as Hong Kong’s No 2 official to run in the chief executive election in March – also got an early taste of the election politicking ahead as the two declared hopefuls for the top job stressed the need for top officials to “respect public opinion”.

Ahead of Monday’s launch of a public consultation on the museum plan, Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan – who is deputy chairwoman of the Legislative Council body which monitors projects in the West Kowloon Cultural District – warned she may seek to invoke Legislative Council special powers to question Lam.

The latest twist in the row centres on architect Rocco Yim Sen-kee, who is facing questions over a possible breach of professional ethics in relation to the project .

Lam’s potential rivals, pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing, said on Sunday that the row over the museum underlined how important it was for officials to “respect public opinion”.

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