Hong Kong inferno exposes regulatory silos, lax oversight: who is accountable?

    Hong Kong inferno exposes regulatory silos, lax oversight: who is accountable?

    Ambiguous rules, lax supervision and uncoordinated policies involving at least four departments are among some deep-rooted problems contributing to the inferno that killed 160 residents in Hong Kong, analysts have said, as the Post reviewed what went wrong. Some industry insiders also questioned whether housing authorities, who oversee a lesser-known independent checking unit, should have…

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    The Labour Department had previously received complaints about the safety nets and followed up on them. Photo: Eugene Lee

      What are the right lessons from Hong Kong’s worst fire in 7 decades?

      As Hong Kong mourns the victims of the deadly Tai Po blaze and questions emerge on accountability, experts have called for much tighter supervision of building maintenance and fire safety by authorities to hold relevant parties responsible so that future tragedies can be averted. They gave this assessment as the government set up an interdepartmental…

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