The Ombudsman's Office on Thursday slammed several government authorities for the poor protection of private lands in country parks.

The office, after completing a review involving at least six government units over 17 years, found the work done by the units slow and "far from satisfactory".

The policy to protect country park enclaves through statutory land plans was put forward during the 1990s.

Twelve priority sites were selected in 1998; five of those were elevated to an even higher priority the following year.

However, the Planning Department had completed plans for only eight of the 12 sites before the Sai Wan incident erupted in June, 2010.

At that time it was disclosed that construction works were already underway at Tai Long Sai Wan.

Though the site was not listed as one of the 12 priority sites, the issue cast a harsh light on the vulnerability of unprotected park enclaves.

Disclosure of the incident led to the further disclosure that of the eight plans completed by the Planning Department, only two of those plans were linked to the five high priority sites scheduled to be gazetted before 2002.

Then during the entire decade spanning 2001 to 2010 the Planning Department completed work on only one site.

"Government is not unaware of the existence of the problem. It had a timetable. But sadly they didn't follow up," said Ombudsman Allan Lai Nin.

The investigation found the Planning Department once attempted in 1999 to defer completion of the plans but the proposal was rejected by the higher authorities at the time.

In 2000, two policy bureaux emerged as an effect of government restructuring. They abruptly decided to "put aside" decisions taken by their predecessors embarking on a new tack to seek "the best possible means of protecting these enclaves".

Later the two bureaux and another two departments agreed to adopt a so-called comprehensive approach, noting "resumption should be the last resort in view of the financial implications".

The Senior Investigation Officer Richard Mak Chi-wing criticized the policy bureaux, including the present Environment Bureau and the Development Bureau, for becoming fixated on "what was called the New Nature Conservation Policy" at the expense of all other considerations, while failing to take necessary actions in a timely manner.

Moreover, the so-called comprehensive conservation policy proposed was "just a preliminary concept without a specific new policy or measure to implement", Mak said.

"It should not be interpreted to mean that the original decision of giving special priority to five enclaves could be shelved," he added.

Mak indicated that the Environment Bureau and its two predecessors have all failed their work at the policy level.

The Development Bureau and its two predecessors failed to oversee the Planning Department and should be held responsible for its bad performance, the report said.

Lai noted that the Planning Department has complained that the slow progress of work was due to lack of manpower and resources.

Lai added that he could not accept the explanation, but he said he believes the department will speed up its efforts after the Sai Wan debacle.

Two months after the Sai Wan incident was exposed, the Planning Department gazetted its statuary development plan for the site.

Then after completing only one plan over a ten year span, the Planning Department churned out more plans for 16 more country park enclaves soon after disclosure of its lax performance.

The work on plans for the remaining 37 enclaves is expected to be completed within one to two years, the department promised.

guojiaxue@chinadailyhk.com

China Daily

(HK Edition 09/16/2011 page1)