Legislators yesterday forced officials to revise a $9 million plan to create four permanent senior posts overseeing urban renewal projects.
In response to the criticism, the Government has made the posts temporary one-year jobs, adding that whether they were made permanent would depend on the performance of the Urban Renewal Authority, whose decisions the four would implement.
The legislators, sitting in a Legco sub-committee meeting, attacked the proposal to create the posts under the Planning and Lands Bureau, Lands Department and Planning Department, saying the authority had a 'blank record' of achievement.
'The scandal-plagued authority has done nothing since its establishment, it could not even draw up a first five-year plan . . . the public are very angry over its progress because it has a blank record,' Democrat Cheung Man-kwong said.
Mr Cheung said the new positions should be temporary and the posts reviewed after a year, depending on the authority's performance.
The authority, which was established in May, took over the role of urban redevelopment from the Land Development Corporation.