When Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen appointed an inquiry into the Grand Promenade saga in November, it was seen as a swift but unusual move to calm jitters about government-business collusion following the publication of an auditor's report.
Few could have predicted that the inquiry panel's finding, published on Tuesday, would create more doubts and confusion. Worse, it raises a litany of complex political issues concerning the executive-legislature relationship.
On the face of it, the move by the Public Accounts Committee yesterday to reaffirm its highly critical findings on the saga, appears aimed at countering the conclusion made by the inquiry panel that absolved former buildings chief Leung Chin-man from blame.
But there is more to it than that - the tussle over the various reports is part of the power play between the executive and the legislature.
Yesterday, legislators said they would demand that the government make clear which report it would accept - the one by the Public Accounts Committee or the one by the inquiry panel.
Underlying the legislators' stance is a sense of anxiety over their powers to hold the government accountable through the Public Accounts Committee, which is part of the value-for-money scrutiny of government spending spearheaded by the Audit Commission. Their fears were prompted by the independent inquiry finding, which has, in effect, overturned a key conclusion of the reports by the commission and the committee.