Records detailing the amount of public funds spent on compensating people for fung shui disruption caused by the construction of two of the city's biggest rail projects have been mysteriously 'disposed of', prompting calls for full disclosure.
At least HK$72 million in taxpayers' money has been paid out of government coffers to contractors, village chiefs, and geomancy and religious practitioners over the past decade. But the figure may be just the tip of a very big iceberg. An investigation by the Sunday Morning Post found what is at best a confused and opaque system for deciding what constitutes a valid claim for fung shui compensation, and at worst non-existent record-keeping, buck-passing and destroyed business files.
Former secretary for works and now chief officer of the KCRC, James Blake, said company records detailing how much was paid out in fung shui compensation for the West Rail and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line projects had been 'properly disposed of', but he declined to say how.
'At the end of any project, once the procedures were completed, payments made, and contracts cleaned up, we no longer need the records,' Blake said. 'We have no immediate access to any records. They are no longer financial records. We don't need them. They are properly disposed of.'
Democratic Party lawmaker Wong Sing-chi said it was incredible that government records were destroyed. 'Under company law, financial records must be kept for seven years. The records are government assets. It is unbelievable that they were disposed of. How can he say this? There must be something in the background that cannot be exposed,' Wong said.
Fung shui payouts across government in recent years include at least HK$18 million for the construction of 10 archways, or pai lau, paid out by the Drainage Services Department and Civil Engineering and Development Department. This figure comes from 'a quick search' of just five 'minor' compensation works including a bypass floodway, flood protection and drainage improvements.
