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Friday, September 15, 1972
Here the Committee again stressed that it regarded the company as
The Committee said, however,
"primarily responsible for the whole situation".
that the present Board of Directors of the Liu Chong Hing Bank had shown a fair
degree of responsibility since the date on which the Chong Hing Mansion was
declared dangerous.
It also pointed out that the criticism of the bank only
applied to the former management.
Commenting on the first part of the report a Government spokesman
said, today that the principal owners of the building had already made ex-gratia
payments and assisted tenants and small shop owners of the building, and this
assistance had been accepted by all concerned.
The bank had also helped a number of non-domestic tenants with additional
payments, credit facilities, loans at low interest rates or alternative
accommodation.
The spokesman said that in view of this it had been decided that no
further Government assistance was necessary.
Conclusions
In the second part of the report, the Committee reached three main
conclusions:-
a.
that the provisions of the Buildings Ordinance are adequate to ensure that a building is not occupied until an occupation permit has been issued. However, it found that the value of
the permits in indicating that the building was
safe largely depended on the reliance to be
placed on the certificates of authorised architects and registered contractors as to which we (the Committee) have strong doubts".
/b. The