Advertisement
Hong Kong
OpinionComment
Dennis Lee
Dennis Lee

Opinion | ‘Close enough’ isn’t good enough for Hong Kong when it comes to construction safety standards

  • Hong Kong’s construction sector has the tools, skills and experience to do high-quality work, so why are there still so many reports of slipshod projects?
  • The culprit is the persistent mentality of doing just enough to get by – a mindset the government must help banish from the industry

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
4
Construction work at Hung Hom MTR station, led by Leighton Contractors (Asia) for the Sha Tin-to-Central rail link. The contractor was found to be cutting corners and doing substandard work, but it received only a HK$40,000 (US$5,100) fine, raising fears about a lack of accountability for shoddy construction work in Hong Kong. Photo: Nora Tam
Dennis Lee
More than a hundred years ago, Chinese scholar and educator Hu Shih wrote “The Legend of Mr Close Enough”, which Hong Kong students would likely have read as part of the Chinese language curriculum. At that young age, I did not fully comprehend the story’s underlying meaning.
Advertisement

At best, I knew Hu was portraying a lazy person satisfied with his lack of effort in doing anything. He was ridiculing a widespread cultural mentality at a time when the mindset of “almost is good enough” and “do the minimum to get by” was spreading from one person to another.

While there is nothing wrong with being content with one’s life and taking things easy, there are times when we carry more responsibility and half-hearted efforts are simply not enough. What I never imagined was that years later when working in the professional world, there would be so many Mr Close Enoughs in the construction industry.

It is not uncommon that before a construction tender is awarded, a tenderer will claim they can deliver all the required work as specified, but everything becomes difficult once the contract is confirmed. At that point, Mr Close Enough makes his appearance.

In a best-case scenario, the contractor tests the owner’s bottom line and asks for design and specification changes so the work can be done by easier means. In a worst-case scenario, the contractor fails to follow the requirements while doing the work and doesn’t tell anybody.

Advertisement

These contractors’ objectives are to provide something close to the specifications by the most economical means, to do the least to get by, and to get it done quickly before it could be rejected. This phenomenon is far from uncommon, with similar challenges emerging in many projects.

Advertisement