The position of projects manager has been left vacant since the Hong Kong government lost confidence in the management of the city’s costliest rail project in August. Photo: Felix Wong
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https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/2185494/old-hand-roger-bayliss-return-mtr-corporation Hong Kong economy
Old hand Roger Bayliss to return to MTR Corporation as projects director in March
- The 61-year-old engineer previously worked for the company for 12 years, overseeing a number of network expansion projects in the 1990s
- He rejoins MTR Corp in the midst of a crisis surrounding accusations of shoddy work at a station on its new Sha Tin-Central link
Roger Bayliss worked for the MTR Corp for 12 years until he departed in 2004. Photo: Handout/Felix Wong
A former manager will return in March to the embattled MTR Corporation as projects director, a position that has been vacant since August, when the Hong Kong government lost confidence in the management of the city’s costliest rail project.
Engineer Roger Bayliss, 61, will succeed Philco Wong Nai-keung, 64, on March 18 in overseeing the corporation’s railway network expansion projects in Hong Kong, the company announced on Friday.
Bayliss spent 12 years with the corporation managing construction of several MTR rail lines such as the Tung Chung line, Airport Express and Tseung Kwan O extension, and the Ngong Ping 360 cable car. He was also involved in the early development of its business on mainland China, before leaving the company for Britain in 2004.
In London, he was a construction director with BAA, now known as LHR Airports, between 2004 and 2006. Then he joined Sweden’s Skanska AB in 2006, his latest position with the company being senior vice-president, operational efficiency.
Bayliss will join the MTR Corp’s executive directorate in addition to his projects director role.
“It is my pleasure to welcome Roger to the executive directorate on behalf of the corporation,” MTR CEO Lincoln Leong Kwok-kuen said.
“With his extensive experience in various infrastructure and railway projects, Roger would definitely add value to the corporation amid current challenges, and lead the projects team to deliver railway projects in compliance with high safety and quality standards.”
Bayliss’s salary, at HK$4.8 million (US$612,000) per annum, excludes performance-based discretionary remuneration, compared with the HK$5.6 million (US$714,000) base pay, allowances and benefits in kind earned by Wong.
Wong brought home an HK$8 million (US$1 million) package in 2017, the latest available figure.
Bayliss joins at a time when the corporation is plagued with a confidence crisis associated with the HK$97.1 billion (US$12.4 billion) Sha Tin-Central rail project.
Philco Wong was forced to resign in August last year after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor lost confidence in the top management of the project and demanded heads roll following revelations of shoddy work at the expanded Hung Hom station. Photo: Dickson Lee
His predecessor Wong was forced to resign in August last year after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor lost confidence in the top management of the project and demanded heads roll following revelations of shoddy work at the expanded Hung Hom station.
This also prompted Leong to step down prematurely; he will depart after his successor is in place.
His boss, MTR Corp non-executive chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang, decided not to take up a new three-year contract in January. Ma will instead stay until the end of June so that he can finish hiring Leong’s replacement.
A source familiar with the process of hiring Ma’s successor said Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen, the head of the governing council at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, had been appointed, pending announcement.
Hung Hom MTR station on the Sha Tin-Central link (SCL), which has been plagued by controversy. Photo: Winson Wong
A government inquiry has been looking into shoddy work and unauthorised change of design, as well as the structural integrity of new platforms, at Hung Hum station, and fresh uncertainty erupted about two weeks ago.
The government revealed that documents certifying work on two approach tunnels and the side tracks for Hung Hom station had never been submitted by main contractor Leighton Contractors (Asia) to the MTR Corp to countersign.
Unapproved design changes had also been made to the structures, involving the use of couplers to connect reinforcement bars to replace the use of lapping bars.
This means the opening date of the 17km (10.6 mile) rail link is in doubt even though the Tai Wai-Hung Hom section is due to be completed in the middle of this year and the cross-harbour section between Hung Hom and Admiralty in 2021.
Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan said that while Bayliss’s appointment had its advantages, the problems within the MTR Corp were too deep-seated for one man to resolve.
“The good thing is he knows the corporation, though there are many changes since he left it, and he has international exposure,” she said. “The bad thing is one person cannot reverse the self-centred culture of the corporation.”