Following is the transcript of the Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam, speaking to the media today (May 6) on the falling of a metal gate in Hung Hom yesterday:
Reporter: Some people have criticised that it took so long for the Government to replace the gate because of the Government's bureaucratic procedures. Do you agree with that? And do you agree that the accident actually could have been avoided?
Secretary for Development: I think it is a bit premature for me to comment on that because, as I have said, we have asked for a full investigation and detailed report from the Director of Architectural Services as well as the Director of Social Welfare in order to understand each and every step in the processing of this particular maintenance request raised by the user department. When we have the report, we will thoroughly and carefully study the report and see what could be done better in the processing and in the prioritisation of the various maintenance works in order to ensure that similar incidents would not occur again.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:48
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