2 bid-rigging syndicates ‘potentially linked’ to estate destroyed in Tai Po fire

he fire at Wang Fuk Court killed 168 people.

Photo: Jelly Tse At least two bid-rigging syndicates could be linked to the HK$336 million (US$43 million) renovation bid for a housing estate destroyed in Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, a lawyer for the competition watchdog has said at the fourth session of an evidential hearing.

Lester Lee Hiu-leung, the Competition Commission’s executive director for legal services, also said on Thursday that the watchdog had not ruled out applying to the Competition Tribunal for damages from Will Power Architects Company and Prestige Construction and Engineering, the consultant and contractor for the project, respectively.

Lee said law enforcement agencies would investigate whether anyone had committed fraud by inducing residents to pick the HK$336 million proposal by Prestige, the most expensive among 57 options, for renovation works at Wang Fuk Court before the fire. “We hope the public will be patient with us,” he told a judge-led committee investigating the disaster.

He also told the hearing that Will Power and Prestige were not included in a formal complaint to the tribunal on Wednesday, which involved eight companies and 12 individuals for projects at 11 housing estates and buildings, including Wang Fuk Court.

The commission had not ruled out the prospect that at least two syndicates were linked to the renovation project at the estate in Tai Po, he said. “The very clear message is that we have now reached a turning point.

Bid-riggers used to believe that the practice was only punishable by a fine, but that logic no longer applies.

The rules of the game have changed,” Lee said.

Survivors of the fire gave evidence in the public inquiry overseen, offering clues as to how smoking by workers and combustible construction materials could have contributed to the disaster.

Some of them expressed concerns that the tender process could have been manipulated, highlighting residents’ “reluctance” to have Prestige take charge and the alleged use of forged authorisation letters when the 57 offers were put to a vote in January 2024.

Wang Fuk Court resident Sin Sin-hing speaks to the media outside City Gallery.

Photo: Karma Lo Wang Chi House resident Wong Suk-lan, 51, said she had heard neighbours complaining about the way volunteers for district councillor Peggy Wong Pik-kiu made residents sign authorisation documents to vote on their behalf.

She accused Wong’s party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of H

原文链接: 南华早报