In a sharp turnaround, the government-appointed expert committee investigating the handling of Hong Kong's Sars outbreak now says it will pin the blame on individual officials if it finds evidence of maladministration or negligence.
The committee said it would hand its report to Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa on October 2 and simultaneously make its contents public.
Sars killed 299 people in Hong Kong and put a further 1,157 in hospital.
The co-chairman of the 11-person committee, Sir Cyril Chantler, said yesterday: 'It is not the case that our terms of reference preclude us commenting on personal responsibility, and we will be concerned with, where relevant, matters as to whether any individual ... is guilty of maladministration. We are clear that we do have responsibilities in that area.'
The committee's independence has been questioned, but Sir Cyril said its members had minds of their own.
'It is a matter of integrity, as far as we are concerned, that the report we give will be our opinion and no one else's,' said the London-based senior associate of health charity the King's Fund.
But legislators involved in health care said they would push for a separate inquiry by the Legislative Council into how Sars spread so quickly at public hospitals and housing estates before being contained on June 23.