Hong Kong leader apologizes for deadly fire that tested Beijing’s grip on city

The report said that Prestige Construction & Engineering Co., the main contractor, and project consultant Will Power Architects Co. had “cut corners in numerous aspects.”

“There is no doubt that they are the main culprits responsible for the occurrence of the inferno and the high fatalities in the tragic incident,” it said.

Both companies, along with seven individuals, were criminally charged in June on 25 counts, including manslaughter, money laundering and tax evasion.

The report also took a broader view of Hong Kong’s building maintenance and renovation sector, citing a “corrupt eco-system” long characterized by practices such as bid-rigging, which it recommended be criminalized.

In addition, the report criticized the government over regulatory lapses and a “slack enforcement attitude” at the housing complex, where residents had repeatedly raised safety concerns.

“The Committee finds that no Government department took effective ownership of various fire safety issues, and complaints about fire hazards fell into a vacuum,” the report said.

Lee said Thursday that the Housing Bureau, Buildings Department, Fire Services Department and Labor Department all bore some responsibility for the blaze and that all four agencies would be the subject of a three-month investigation.

John Burns, a professor emeritus of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, said it was “very significant” that Lee had apologized.

“We’ve gone for years with no chief executive talking about political accountability, as though it didn’t exist,” he told NBC News in an interview.

“Today, we have the chief executive talking about this directly and talking about a system of political accountability,” Burns said. “That’s a positive step.”

He added that it was “inevitable” that an official such as Ho would resign, “otherwise the credibility of the government itself would have been even more severely damaged.”