Leighton manager faces grilling at Sha-Tin Central link inquiry as chairman wonders if company had a collective ‘lapse’
- Michael Hartmann, chairman of the commission of inquiry into botched work, noted that many of the main contractor’s staff failed to remember key documents
The chairman of a high-level inquiry into a construction scandal involving Hong Kong’s most expensive rail project asked if the main contractor’s staff had a collective “lapse” or “oversight” as many of them failed to remember key documents.
Michael Hartmann, chairman of the commission of inquiry into shoddy work on the Hung Hom station platform of the HK$97.1 billion (US$12.4 billion) Sha Tin-Central link, made his observation on Tuesday as another manager of Leighton Contractors (Asia) said he was not aware of many key issues.
Leighton, the main contractor for the project, 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.
Several Leighton managers had previously told the commission they had no recollection of the instances of defective steel bar works carried out by its bar-fixing subcontractor Fang Sheung Construction, despite the firm issuing a nonconformance report (NCR) in December 2015.
