bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

Following the chaotic opening of Chek Lap Kok Airport on July 6 last year, three inquiries were launched to discover what went wrong.

  The inquiries, led by Justice Woo Kwok-hing, former Ombudsman Andrew So Kwok-wing and senior legislator Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee, unani mously singled out four top executives of the Airport Authority as being primarily responsible for the debacle.

  The executives named were: former Airport Authority chief executive Dr Hank Townsend, former project director Douglas Oakervee, airport management division head Chern Heed and information technology department head Kiron Chatterjee.

  Dr Townsend was blamed for not being in firm control of his management team, resulting in a lack of co-ordination between the project division and airport management division.

  Mr Oakervee was criticised for delays in development of flight information software which was mainly caused by the lack of co- ordination.

  Mr Heed was said to have be trayed the trust of the Airport Development Steering Commit tee. Mr Chatterjee was accused of being grossly negligent in not correcting misstatements to the committee about the flight information display system.

  When the three reports were made public, Dr Townsend and Mr Oakervee had already retired and left Hong Kong after receiving their gratuity payments.

  Dr Townsend returned to the United States with a $2.5 million end-of-contract bonus, while Mr Oakervee is believed to have been paid about $600,000.

  Several critics said both executives had got off lightly. Legislators took issue with the fact that both Dr Townsend and Mr Oakervee were paid their gratuities in full - and called for the return of the payments in view of the fact that the reports singled them out as being primarily responsible for the chaotic airport opening.

   Although the total gratuities paid were not disclosed, the Democratic Party's Fred Li Wah- ming estimated fees paid to the former managers amounted to at least $7 million.

  'They should not be paid extra for their poor performance,' he said.

  Legislator Cheung Man- kwong said it was arguable whether Dr Townsend could be regarded as having completed his job, not to mention completing it to the authority's satisfaction.

  'Who is going to bear the responsibility if he can still walk away free with the gratuity?' asked Mr Cheung.

  Following these vocal demands, the Airport Authority formed a working group to look into the legalities of reclaiming the gratuity payments to Dr Townsend and Mr Oakervee as well as those of the two other executives, Mr Heed and Mr Chatterjee, who were then still employed by the authority.

 However, others said it would be wrong for the Government to reclaim the gratuity payments made to Dr Townsend and Mr Oakervee. They argue that embarking on a witch hunt for scapegoats to blame for the airport fiasco would serve no useful purpose.

  Subsequently, the working group announced last month that after taking legal advice, the board decided not to take action to recover bonus payments to Dr Townsend and Mr Oakervee.

  This was because the payments were not performance-related and the Government was legally obliged to pay them.



Inquiries expose bonus problem