Officials ignored piling warnings ahead of bidding for contracts to build a housing estate later found to have faulty foundations, according to a confidential report.
Substandard piling was discovered in the Home Ownership Scheme's Tin Chung Court, Tin Shui Wai, last September. The Housing Authority is spending $350 million to compensate home-buyers and stabilise the buildings.
The report, prepared by a Housing Authority investigation panel chaired by lawyer and authority member Philip Nunn, is one of the key documents being examined by a government committee asked to investigate possible civil service misconduct over the faulty piling.
Some of the report has been made public since it was completed in March, but the rest has been kept secret.
The full report, seen by the South China Morning Post, quotes consultants Hsin Yieh Architects & Associates as saying they warned the Housing Department against using a type of foundation - pre-stressed, pre-cast (PPC) piles - for the project. Two independent expert witnesses told the panel such piles were not long enough to reach bedrock.
Despite the warnings, officials decided to allow the use of the piles. 'The department had insisted that they [PPC piles] be allowed as a choice for tenderers,' the report said.
