Bridge could erode autonomy, Hong Kong graft buster arrests 21

The Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) arrested two senior executives and 19 staff members of a contractor of the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) for alleged corruption in relation to their submission of fake concrete compression test reports regarding the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-
Macau Bridge (HKZMB), as noted in a statement released by ICAC.

Specifically, “two senior executives, two senior site laboratory technicians, 12 site laboratory technicians and five laboratory assistants of the contractor of the CEDD were arrested.”

Starting in January 2013, the CEDD had engaged the contractor to conduct compression tests on samples of concrete to be used for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge project.

The test for each sample was required to be conducted within a set time frame and all concrete samples (in cube form) were required to pass the test.

ICAC suspects that the site laboratory technicians and laboratory assistants may have adjusted the times on the testing machines to cover up the irregularities.

Some of the laboratory staff “might have replaced the concrete samples by using a metal calibration cylinder and/or high strength concrete cubes to falsify the tests, so that the tests would appear to have been conducted properly,” the statement read.

“It was suspected that the above malpractice might have started in early 2015.”

Two senior site laboratory technicians had certified the false test reports, and it was suspected that they might have colluded in the submission of the false reports to the CEDD.

When irregularities were initially detected in the concrete compression test reports by the CEDD, the contractor conducted an internal investigation into the matter.

The arrests were the second controversial development this week to result from the bridge, the construction of which is expected by some estimates to complete by the end of the year.

Earlier in the week, concerned citizens in Hong Kong said mainland officials were using the infrastructure project to deepen ties between the People’s Republic of China and the HKSAR.

One such official, Wei Dongqing, a Chinese Party official, told Reuters that the bridge would promote unity, both physically and mentally.

“It’s psychological,” he said. “We have confidence for the future […] a united market, a united people […] that’s the dream.”

That raised concerns with some in Hong Kong who continue to view the project as an erosion of Hong Kong’s independent identity and the encroach of Beijing into the the territory’s autonomy, as laid out in the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984.