page_title: Rosanna Wong
section_title: Short-piling scandal
hierarchical_section_title: Rosanna Wong / Biography / Short-piling scandal
caption_attribution_description: HK Tin Chung Court Tower K&amp;L
context_page_description: Dame Rosanna Wong Yick-ming DBE JP also known by her married name, Rosanna Tam Wong Yick-ming, in her former marriage from 1979 lasting until 1992, and primarily known as Dr Rosanna Wong in public occasions after 1997, is a Hong Kong social work administrator and politician who has served as the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups since 1980.
  Before the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong, she was appointed as unofficial member of the Legislative Council from 1985 to 1991 and of the Executive Council from 1988 to 1991. She briefly retired from politics in 1991 but was successful to return as unofficial Executive Councillor for a second time in 1992, and was also appointed chairperson of the Hong Kong Housing Authority in the following year. Wong was trusted by the last British colonial Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, who chose her to replace Baroness Dunn as the Convenor of the Executive Council in 1995, thus rising as an influential figure in the final years of the colonial government. In 1997, she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and became the second Chinese woman, after Baroness Dunn, to be made a Dame in history.
context_section_description: Under the "85,000 Housing Policy" suggested by Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, the Housing Authority was demanded to build large-scale public housing estates and Home Ownership Scheme estates all over Hong Kong by the government in the early years after the transfer of sovereignty. At one time the Authority was even asked to build not less than 85,000 flats a year, so that more people could enjoy public housing. Nevertheless, because of lacking of efficient monitoring and poor planning, the policy soon became a leak for jerry-building, and a series of short-piling scandals were exposed.
  In September 1999, some blocks in Tin Chung Court, a Home Ownership Scheme estate built by the Housing Authority in Tin Shui Wai, were discovered with serious and unusual settlement. Later in January 2000, a Home Ownership Scheme construction site in Yuen Chau Kok, Sha Tin was reported to have the same problem found in Tin Chung Court, and it became known that the pilings of these affected blocks were much shorter than required. The short-piling scandals were followed by a series of discoveries of jerry-building. In March and May of the same year, constructions in the shopping centre of Shek Yam Estate and in the site of Phase 3 of Tung Chung Area 30 were reported extensive non-compliance respectively. The general public was deeply shocked by the series of scandals and the Independent Commission Against Corruption soon carried out investigations into the housing scandals.
  Facing the housing scandals, as the chairperson of the Housing Authority, Wong vowed to grasp the opportunity to reform the bureaucratic and corrupted Housing Department. However, she quickly became the target to be blamed by the public opinions. Many civil groups representing residents of the public housing estates reproached Wong for being incompetent to supervise the housing constructions and they demanded her and the Director of Housing, Tony Miller to step down. In June 2000, Secretary for Housing, Dominic S. W. Wong appointed Director of Intellectual Property, Stephen R. Selby as the chairman of the Investigation Panel on Staff Discipline in the Yuen Chau Kok and Tin Chung Court Incidents to see if anyone was derelict in the whole scandal. Apart from the pressure from the government, Democratic Party's legislator Fred Li moved a motion of no confidence on both Rosanna Wong and Tony Miller in the Legislative Council on 9 June. Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa later paid a special visit to the Legislative Council on 23 June and addressed to the Council Meeting. He hoped the legislators to vote against the motion of no confidence, claiming that if "both of them leave one after another, an administrative and legal vacuum would be created at the top level of the Government".
  She declared her resignation from the Housing Authority on 24 June 2000, and became the first government official to hold accountability and resign from the government of the Special Administrative Region before the introduction of Principal Officials Accountability System. Four days later, the Legislative Council passed the motion of no confidence on her and Miller with a significant majority, however, Miller had never resigned. The post of chairperson of the Housing Authority was later filled by Dr Cheng Hon-kwan on 1 October.
  The scandal did not rest with the resignation of Wong. In February 2001, the Legislative Council set up a Select committee to enquire into the whole matter in-depth. On 8 May 2001, Wong was summoned to give evidences in front of the committee. In the enquiry, she admitted the risk of jerry-building had been underestimated. Yet, she claimed that the concept of "85,000 Housing Policy" which had already existed during the governorship of Chris Patten and the Housing Authority was merely ordered to carry out the long-term housing policy which was planned by the government, not the Authority. Besides, she provided a number of letters to Governor Patten written by her between 1994 and 1996 to the enquiry. One of them, dated December 1996, stated that the Housing Authority could build 
caption: One of the "short-piling blocks" in Tin Shui Wai.
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