Officials yesterday accepted they had made mistakes in the search for an office for the Chief Executive.
They said hard lessons had been learnt.
The admission came after the Director of Audit said $6.7 million in taxpayers' money had been wasted in the hunt for an office at the end of last year.
Secretary for Treasury Kwong Ki-chi said he accepted the Audit Department's criticism of the officials. 'This is a rare case which will not happen again. In this exceptional case, we had to find a site in very short time. In hindsight, we could have done better,' he told the provisional legislature's Public Accounts Committee.
In September 1996, officials were told there was an urgent need to provide an office by December that year.
More than $9 million was spent fitting out offices in Swire House in October, although the Government had not confirmed whether the company next door would move out.
When it declined, the landlord offered an office in Edinburgh Tower as a substitute.
