Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong on Monday said liaison officers would be assigned to handle homeowners' enquiries and complaints regarding future building renovation projects.

The government announced last week comprehensive reforms to the building maintenance industry to prevent a repeat of the Wang Fuk Court fire that killed 168 people last year.

A report detailing the shortcomings by contractors and government departments in relation to the tragedy was released on the same day.

Among the measures proposed by the government, the Housing Bureau's Independent Checking Unit (ICU) would be decommissioned and replaced by a Public Housing Building Control Section this month.

Project-specific teams would be set up to assist housing estates undertaking major maintenance and renovation works. A liaison officer would act as the point of contact for the owners' corporation and homeowners.

Wong, who attended a Legislative Council housing panel meeting as Acting Secretary for Housing, said the liaison officers will keep homeowners informed of developments.

"Currently, the ICU has different professional functions. It may not be practical for homeowners to find the person in charge of each field," he said.

"We have internal referrals now, but it's neither direct nor fast enough. In the future, the one-stop liaison officer would handle all these issues, as well as complaints concerning maintenance matters."

Wong added that authorities also planned to use artificial intelligence to speed things up, such as auditing and analysing documents.

"It's impractical for one person to go through 1,000 documents, while artificial intelligence can finish that in 0.1 seconds," he said.

"It will flag anomalies and anything improper, but will not make the final judgment. We will always have people to make the judgment."

Wong said any potential issue flagged by AI will be followed up manually.



Edited by Raymond Yeung