Call for probe into chief executive’s role at MTR over rail link delay
Academic says minister asked him to head investigation as he was about to go on stage and did not realise there was a conflict of interest
The academic who quit the government's MTR inquiry because of a potential conflict of interest has clarified details of the farce over his two-hour appointment.
It came as lawmakers urged the MTR board of directors to investigate the role of the corporation's chief executive Jay Walder in the two-year delay to the high-speed rail link to Guangzhou.
While the delay was made public on April 15, reports submitted to the Legislative Council on Friday showed that back on November 22, the government intended to make it known the rail link may not open until 2017.
However, on November 21, Walder made a call to Secretary for Transport and Housing Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung in which he said the MTR could still meet the original 2015 target. Cheung gave him "the benefit of the doubt" and decided not to notify lawmakers.
On Friday, the government announced it would set up a panel of experts to investigate communications between it and the MTR on the project, with former University of Hong Kong pro-vice-chancellor Professor Lee Chack-fan as its head. Just two hours later, Lee quit following the revelation that he was an independent non-executive director of Paul Y Engineering, a key contractor for the project's troubled West Kowloon terminus.
Lee said yesterday: "I didn't know Paul Y was involved in the high-speed railway project. It has hundreds of projects; there's no way to know which project it's working on. I thought the government would have my curriculum vitae, and know [I was connected to Paul Y]."
Lee, a geotechnical engineer, said he received a call from Cheung a day before the appointment and agreed to head the panel as he wanted to help. "I was at a banquet and it was quite a rush because I had to go on stage to introduce the guests," he said.
