Sha Tin-Central rail link inquiry: senior manager of main contractor dismisses claims of corruption at his company on MTR job
- Malcolm Plummer, project director of main contractor Leighton, denies he ever admitted corruption to whistle-blower
Corruption claims about the main contractor at the centre of a construction scandal involving the city’s most expensive rail project were “completely fabricated”, a senior manager at the company said on Thursday.
Malcolm Plummer, project director at Leighton Contractors (Asia), strongly dismissed the allegations as he testified at the commission of inquiry into shoddy work on the expanded Hung Hom station of the HK$97.1 billion (US$12.3 billion) Sha Tin-Central link.
Leighton is 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.
Giving evidence from Perth, Australia via a video feed, Plummer admitted that the firm sometimes hired daywork labour to perform work that did not fall under the remit of sub-contractors.
However, when asked if Leighton would hire direct labour to fix botched work of sub-contractors, he said he was not aware of any such arrangement at the site.