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Potentially dangerous conflicts of interest in the building industry are rife and pressure to cheat on standards is set to intensify, a construction quality control group has warned.

The Association of Construction Materials Laboratories said building contractors often hired or owned the firms that tested their work, despite government reports implicating the practice in scandals.

'The recent short-piling cases were a shocking example of what can go wrong if the quality control system is not effective,' association chairman Mike Lee said in a recent letter urging the Government to instigate changes.

A copy of the letter, addressed to engineering constituency legislator Dr Raymond Ho Chung-tai, has been obtained by the South China Morning Post.

'Is it surprising that a student who marks his own exam results will get straight As? And yet the industry continues to accept this practice, despite recommendations for change,' Mr Lee wrote.

'The present contractual relationship has in the past placed many of our members, and their staff, in compromising situations of being asked to carry out work in a manner other than correct practice.'

Companies belonging to the association had addressed probity issues with staff but remained concerned that their employees could bow to client pressure.

'The construction industry is moving into leaner times. The worsening economy can only add to pressure,' Mr Lee wrote.

Dr Ho backed the association's call for change and said he would raise the issue in Legco and with Government bureaus.

It was vital rules on construction changed because public safety was at stake but he added the rate of failures in Hong Kong was low relative to the size of the building industry.

'It's up to the Government to take the initiative,' he said. 'If we want to be a world-class city we must ensure what we do is up to world standards.' A series of reports into various building scandals over recent years has recommended that testing firms be hired directly by the client organisation, rather than the firm contracted to do the construction.

Mr Lee said the Housing Authority had led the way in insisting on independent testing but other departments did not do so consistently. Pressure to cut corners on test results occurred 'very often'.

'If we present a failed report, very often the contractor will employ another laboratory,' he said.

But one consultant structural engineer, Hugh Wu, said he did not think there was any conflict of interest, or need to change. 'The less regulation, the better. The driver of a car should be responsible, not the Transport Department,' he said.

Laboratories acted professionally regardless of which firm appointed them, he argued, noting that buildings regularly withstood typhoons - a sign of their quality.

But Mr Lee said sometimes the cheapest operators were able to provide appealing quotes by failing to do the tests at all and making up results.

Even high-quality laboratories could be misled by contractors who provided invalid samples, and test results were commonly sent to building contractors - meaning 'fail' results could be hidden from clients.

A spokesman for the Works Bureau said the matters would fall under a new construction industry co-ordination board, which was established in response to the recommendations of the 'Construct for Excellence' report published in January.

Among the report's recommendations was that employers use independent testing laboratories.

About 20 representatives from three unions protested yesterday at government headquarters in Central to demand extending the Employees' Compensation Ordinance to include self-employed construction workers.

The unions said the number of such workers had doubled from 11,400 in the fourth quarter of last year to 22,900 in the second quarter of this year as a result of the Mandatory Provident Fund, which began last December.

They claimed that many employers had tried to avoid contributing to the fund by compelling their workers to become self-employed.



Pressure to cheat because of conflict of interest rife, says construction watchdog