Whistle-blower who exposed shoddy work on Hong Kong’s costliest rail link to sue Leighton Contractors (Asia) for HK$24 million
- China Technology Corporation says falsework and scaffolding structures were not returned
- Subcontractor had exposed shoddy work on the HK$97.1 billion (US$12.3 billion) Sha Tin-Central rail link
A subcontractor on Hong Kong’s most expensive rail project is taking the main contracting firm to court over more than HK$24 million worth of construction materials, a filing showed on Monday.
China Technology Corporation, the whistle-blower that exposed shoddy work on the HK$97.1 billion (US$12.3 billion) Sha Tin-Central rail link is claiming HK$24,013,110 from Leighton Contractors (Asia) for not returning falsework and scaffolding structures, the document said.
The legal paper, filed to the High Court last Friday, did not link the claim with the railway scandal, but managing director Jason Poon Chuk-hung of China Technology Corporation confirmed it to the Post.
“Leighton originally agreed to return these illegally occupied materials in September 2017,” he said.
“However, we had only got back a very small portion of our materials. We are therefore suing to recover our rights.”
The multibillion-dollar project aimed at relieving congestion at major transit points in Hong Kong hit a wall last May following media reports that workers had cut corners in a safety scandal that pitted the government, the city’s train operator MTR Corporation and its contractors against one another.