Hong Kong leader John Lee apologized and said Housing Secretary Winnie Ho resigned after an investigation found inadequate regulatory oversight in a deadly fire last November.
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Hong Kong leader John Lee apologized on Thursday and said Housing Secretary Winnie Ho resigned after an investigation into the city’s deadliest fire in decades found inadequate regulatory oversight.
The investigation followed a massive fire that broke out last November, engulfing seven buildings in an apartment complex in a northern suburban district and killing 168 people, while displacing thousands of others.
Lee said Ho resigned on Wednesday and that Ho “should bear political responsibility,” even though no personal wrongdoing was found.
At the opening of the news conference, Lee and seven other top officials bowed in apology.
An independent committee found that the Housing Bureau’s independent checking unit failed in its duties supervising the maintenance work during the period when the affected buildings were undergoing building maintenance.
The independent committee’s work was described as separate from criminal investigations in which seven people and two companies were charged with offences including manslaughter and conspiracy to defraud over the fire.
Authorities alleged the two companies and some defendants conspired to defraud apartment owners by concealing previous litigation records of the company later awarded a renovation project worth more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars, or over $38 million.
The fire’s victims included residents of Wang Fuk Court, many of whom have spent nearly a year waiting for the government to address accountability for the disaster.
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