HK$6 million was offered to silence me over shoddy rail work on Hong Kong’s Sha Tin-Central link, whistle-blower says
- China Technology Corporation managing director Jason Poon alleges Leighton Contractors (Asia) tried to keep him quiet about substandard construction
The main contractor in a construction scandal involving Hong Kong’s most expensive rail project was on Monday accused of offering money to silence a whistle-blower and cover up two irregularities in its work.
Details of the allegation were aired at a high-level inquiry as informant Jason Poon Chuk-hung gave evidence for the sixth day. The judge-led probe is investigating shoddy work on Hong Kong’s HK$97.1 billion (US$12.3 billion) Sha Tin-Central link.
Poon said engineering firm Leighton Contractors (Asia) had asked him to help cover up two cases of substandard construction.
The managing director of subcontractor China Technology Corporation had been hired by Leighton to carry out concreting work at Hung Hom station.
Leighton is also embroiled in allegations that steel bars were cut short to fake proper installation into couplers on the station platform, and that supporting diaphragm walls were changed without authorisation.