Heritage Committee discusses protection of building that no longer exists

Mok Ian Ian of the IC

The Cultural Heritage Committee in its plenary session held yesterday at the Macao Cultural Center, was to address the protection of a building located in the area of Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro that no longer exists.

That acknowledgement was made on the sidelines of the meeting by the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) Mok Ian Ian who explained that the building, which was under the evaluation of the committee, had to be demolished because it presented a threat to public safety.

The building, located at Rua dos Faitiões and subject to the Protection Area of the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, was demolished although the Urban Conditions Plan was still under consultation and the opinion issued by the IC had suggested that the original façade should be kept. Mok justified the decision to demolish the building by citing public safety concerns, as reported by TDM.

The IC president took the same opportunity to comment on the removal from duties of the head of the Public Libraries Management Department of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tang Mei Lin, who according to Mok would be transferred to another department and given different duties.
The measure comes as a result of disciplinary proceedings opened in August last year following an audit in May in which several breaches of procedures were detected at the department. The breaches allegedly resulted in a loss to the public purse, as well as damages and misuse of library resources.

In the conclusion of the disciplinary proceedings, Tang was given a written reprimand followed by the removal from such duties. She was transferred to another department but continued to work under the IC, Mok informed.

Tang was under a disciplinary proceedings following an audit which detected persistent neglect in the cataloging and preservation of the materials and documents of the public libraries as well as a large budget spent on the acquisition of new books without an apparent criteria and that most of the time would stay stored in boxes without being made available for public review or use. RM