The $13.5 million development at the Northcote College of Education could have been better co-ordinated, Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang admitted yesterday.
The building will be redundant in less than three years.
The Public Accounts Committee had attacked the construction of a four-storey library because the Pokfulam college will merge with three others to become the Hong Kong Institute of Education and move to a new campus in Tai Po, to be completed next year.
In response to the committee report yesterday, Mrs Chan agreed that legislators should have been informed about the merger, and its impact on the project, after the Finance Committee approved the funding.
'On the way forward, we will, as recommended by the [committee], carefully evaluate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of retaining the Northcote College of Education library block in the overall development of the Hong Kong University Faculty of Medicine project,' she said.
