Public Service Commission chairwoman Maisie Cheng said on Thursday that an inquiry team examining civil servants' accountability over the Wang Fuk Court fire will interview about 100 government officers across four departments, with 40 to 50 likely to be investigation targets.

She was speaking after Chief Executive John Lee announced the two-tier administrative-accountability investigation covering the Housing Department's Independent Checking Unit, Buildings Department, Fire Services Department and Labour Department.

Cheng said although the investigation will be challenging, the team will race against time and go all out to complete the work within three months as the CE requires.

She said preparatory work has been underway since August. The team will use the independent committee report and published materials as its starting point, then dig into shortfalls by individual civil servants – including possible breaches of the Civil Service Code – by seeking files and interviewing officers, she added.

"This team has already put all their effort to familiarise themselves with the information, especially those abundant information, made public by the independent committee," she said.

"With all this preparatory work and also the preparatory work done by the two members and myself in the past few months, we are very confident that although the investigation team and the support office will be officially set up today, we can commence the investigation immediately."

Civil Service Secretary Ingrid Yeung said after the probe, the team will decide which civil servants bear administrative responsibility and how serious it is – then recommend to the government whether to take disciplinary action or impose administrative sanctions.

She said the government will study the recommendations quickly.

Yeung added that for disciplinary cases, hearings will be held – and if charges are proven, the government can dismiss the officer, order compulsory retirement, demote, issue a reprimand or impose a fine.


Edited by Aaron Tam