Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam is flanked by her leading government officials when meeting the media to talk about the extradition bill protests at the government’s headquarters at Tamar, Admiralty, on July 21, 2019. Photo: Robert Ng
Opinion
Opinion
by Mike Rowse
Opinion
by Mike Rowse
When Hong Kong’s three worst-performing ministers have survived, accountability is dead and buried
Secretary for Security John Lee and Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng should have borne more responsibility for the extradition bill saga, while Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan has distinguished himself by his lack of achievement
The ministerial reshuffle announced in late April by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was received with a mixture of indifference and cynicism. After all, most people thought Lam herself should have been the first to go rather than the five who actually lost their jobs (one of whom was moved sideways to an equivalent position).
Yet the real significance of the exercise may have been missed: it effectively marked the death of the system of ministerial accountability.
The system was introduced in 2002 to install a political level on top of the civil service. These principal officials would owe their positions entirely to the chief executive and would make all major policy decisions which the civil service would then implement.
To reflect their status, and the fact that they are responsible for everything that happens in their policy areas, the ministers are very well paid. Their monthly salaries now exceed HK$300,000 – that’s over HK$10,000 per day, the one-off sum we are all getting to revive the economy.
Among the other ministers, the performance of Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah and Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu during the extradition bill saga clearly merited dismissal, yet they survived the cull.
02:44
Hong Kong protests draw attention from US senators, Xi Jinping, activists in Brazil and London
Hong Kong protests draw attention from US senators, Xi Jinping, activists in Brazil and London
Both had failed to stand up to their boss’ unwise demand to draft and force through controversial extradition legislation, without sufficient consultation and bypassing standard legislative scrutiny. Lee had, in addition, simply lost control of the police force.
Very little was expected from the Independent Police Complaints Council’s report into police handling of the 2019 protests, and most doubters had their worst fears confirmed.
The section of the IPCC report on events in Yuen Long on July 31 alone raised fundamental questions about the calibre of the force’s leadership and the performance of many individual officers. But nobody was held to account.
02:06
Attack victim at Hong Kong’s Yuen Long MTR station recalls horrific ordeal
Attack victim at Hong Kong’s Yuen Long MTR station recalls horrific ordeal
Casting about among the other ministers who survived, some look the part while the remainder are of more modest ability. Then there is Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan, who stands out for lack of achievement.
On the housing side of the bureau’s portfolio, the situation has never been worse. Hong Kong’s private housing market is expected to remain the most expensive in the world despite the impact of Covid-19 on economic activity.
Three years after Chan took office, the average waiting time for public housing is five years and four months. Single elderly folk must now wait three years, and many will die while still in the queue.
An elderly woman dries plants and herbs on a concrete table tennis table at Nam Shan Estate in Shek Kip Mei on June 11. Single elderly people have to wait about three years for a public housing flat. Photo: Sam Tsang
Things are no better on the transport side. Every rail project in recent years has been delivered late or over budget. This was partly due to the government’s failure to stipulate a proper set of priorities and instead require the MTR Corporation to implement five major projects – West Island, South Island, the Sha-Tin-Central link, Kwun Tong line extension and cross-border high-speed rail – simultaneously.
Inevitably, design and supervisory resources were spread too thinly. The minister failed to set the priorities, and also sits on the board of MTR Corp, which failed to counter a clearly overambitious programme.
One aspect of these projects – improvements to Hung Hom station on the Shatin-Central line – was so badly handled that it became the subject of a commission of inquiry headed by a retired judge. The report was submitted to the chief executive in March and went to the Executive Council in May.
Blame for the shoddy work was laid firmly at the door of the MTR Corp and its main contractor, Leighton. The railway division of the Highways Department responsible for monitoring the safety of mass transit projects was also deficient in its work. As a result of the shoddy work, the project will be delayed by at least two years and the cost overruns are in the billions of dollars.
Chan has apologised and expressed disappointment at the performance of others, but clings on. Even a pro-government legislator – Abraham Shek Lai-him – has called for him to step down.
I cannot allow the subject of transport to close without raising the issue of the taxi service and Hong Kong’s response to Uber. We all know there are good taxi drivers, but there are also some shockers. How many times do we enter a cab which smells of tobacco, or the driver, or both?
It’s common for taxis to have dirty tissues in the door handles, several mobile phones lined up on the dashboard to try to catch the next fare, any of which may be answered while driving, and a radio blaring away on the driver’s preferred channel. Add to this a jerky driving style interspersed with dangerous lane cutting and a refusal to cross the harbour.
Complaints against taxis pile up without result. Uber, which I recently started using, provides a totally different experience, and, on the odd occasion that standards fall short, there is an effective feedback mechanism. The minister’s response? Propose a premium taxi scheme at higher fare levels, an idea struggling to gain support even from pro-government legislators, and arrest Uber drivers. You couldn’t make this up.
So there we have it: 18 years after the introduction of the ministerial accountability system, we have a reshuffle – and the three worst-performing ministers survive. The idea is dead.
Mike Rowse is the CEO of Treloar Enterprises
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: System of ministerial accountability dead and buried
