The lawyer representing the government on Tuesday said building inspectors notify contractors ahead of site visits out of practical necessity, as a probe into the Tai Po inferno continued.

The independent committee's senior counsel, Victor Dawes, last week said that the Housing Bureau's Independent Checking Unit – responsible for site safety audit checks – had messaged contractors before making on-site inspections.

Senior counsel Jenkin Suen, who is representing the government at the hearings, said media reports that described this interaction as a "tip off" seriously deviated from the truth, and that such allegations are completely groundless.

He explained that the unit was touching base with contractors a day in advance to make sure officials will not make a trip when nobody is around, and that the notification time was made as short as possible.

In his opening remarks on the third day of hearings, Suen also said that the Fire Services Department was never notified that the fire alarm system had been suspended at the estate.

The inquiry heard last week that the system had been shut down for months after contractors repeatedly applied for suspension extensions.

Suen said the government has never been evasive about there being systemic shortcomings, but the barrister noted that the committee should also consider whether there had been people who tried to cut costs, evade regulations or get away with things through deceitful means.

Regarding different departments not being able to detect problems earlier, the senior counsel said there is a significant deficiency in the mechanism that handles complaints.

Suen noted officials should have detected hazards earlier after there had been many fires in recent years involving scaffolding mesh netting.

The barrister went on to say the government has always been open about answering questions, with no intention to hide anything regardless of whether the evidence is advantageous to officials or not.

He stressed it must learn from this tragedy to avoid a repeat of what happened.

Wang Fuk residents are due to testify later in the afternoon.


Edited by Aaron Tam