‘Following captain’s orders’: Asked about resigning over Tai Po fire, development chief likens self to crew under John Lee

Hong Kong’s development chief has likened herself to a sailor who must put her captain’s orders over her “personal wishes,” when asked by a reporter about calls for her to resign over the deadly Tai Po fire that killed 168 people last year.

Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn’s comments, made during a press conference on Friday, came a day after the government announced the resignation of housing minister Winnie Ho.

Ho’s resignation was revealed on the same day a report from a government-appointed committee investigating the fire was released. The report heavily faulted the Independent Checking Unit (ICU), an inspections body that Ho’s Housing Bureau oversees, for ignoring residents’ complaints about the flame retardancy of renovation materials.

Linn conceded that the report also criticised the Buildings Department, and that the Buildings Department reports to the Development Bureau, which she leads.

When asked whether she had thought of resigning, Linn said that months ago, Chief Executive John Lee described himself during a Legislative Council meeting as a “captain” onboard a ship. By extension of the metaphor, Linn said, she was a member of Lee’s crew.

“As crew, it’s sometimes not about personal considerations or wishes. I must have discipline and follow the captain’s orders,” Linn said, adding that, if not, the vessel cannot “keep moving forward.”

“In response to your question, I have thought about [resigning], but sometimes it’s not about personal wishes… as one of the ship’s crew, I have a responsibility to do my job well,” she said in Cantonese.

Report reveals deficiencies

Wang Fuk Court was undergoing a large-scale renovation project at the time of the fire.

Hearings held by the independent committee found that substandard scaffolding nets were used at the site, which caused the rapid spread of the fire, and pointed to potential bid-rigging, links to competing contractors, and “rubber-stamp inspections.”

In the report released on Thursday, the committee said the Buildings Department and the ICU had “failed in their supervisory duties” to ensure the safety of the renovation work.

Between the Buildings Department and the ICU, the committee found that the latter bore a larger share of responsibility as its failings spanned “both policy and operational levels.”

But the Buildings Department’s deficiencies were also highlighted. The Buildings Department is empowered to conduct audit checks on the ICU, but it had never done so, according to the report.

The Buildings Department is meant to review certificates to ensure that scaffolding nets meet fire safety requirements, but “systematic verification” came only after the fire – and the Buildings Department discovered “fraudulent certificates across multiple buildings, leading to nets being ordered to be removed from some 230 private buildings.”

On Thursday, survivors of the fire said top officials’ apology felt insincere and questioned why only one minister had stepped down when the committee had also faulted other departments. Besides the ICU and the Buildings Department, the Fire Services Department and the Labour Department were also named.

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Hillary Leung is a journalist at Hong Kong Free Press, where she reports on local politics and social issues, and assists with editing. Since joining in late 2021, she has covered the Covid-19 pandemic, political court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial, and challenges faced by minority communities.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hillary completed her undergraduate degree in journalism and sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She worked at TIME Magazine in 2019, where she wrote about Asia and overnight US news before turning her focus to the protests that began that summer. At Coconuts Hong Kong, she covered general news and wrote features, including about a Black Lives Matter march that drew controversy amid the local pro-democracy movement and two sisters who were born to a domestic worker and lived undocumented for 30 years in Hong Kong.