Senior civil servant asked to resign over defective lifts at Queen Mary Hospital

A senior Hong Kong government official who oversaw faulty lift installation work that stalled the launch of a new block at Queen Mary Hospital was asked to resign and left her post last month to take responsibility for the defects and delays on other projects, the South China Morning Post has learned.

But experts criticised the authorities’ handling of civil service management missteps, which bypassed the established disciplinary mechanism, saying it lacked transparency.

Multiple sources said that Tuesday Li Pak-yee, a chief project manager at the Architectural Services Department (ASD) who oversaw the multibillion-dollar redevelopment of the hospital in Pok Fu Lam, left her directorate pay-level post in August.

Her departure came shortly before media scrutiny began mounting over defective work at the largest hospital on Hong Kong Island, which left 24 of its 28 lifts in the new 34-storey clinical block unfit for use.

“[Li] was advised by the Architectural Services Department to resign,” a government insider said. “Such a departure is extremely rare within the civil service framework.”

Another government source said the department regarded Li, who served as the main official liaising with contractors and overseeing the hospital project’s execution, as possibly having made “management missteps” over the delay, and that it tried to resolve the matter internally rather than initiate formal disciplinary proceedings.