No judge in sight to head Hong Kong's lead-in-water inquiry yet
Tough to get suitable candidates, Carrie Lam says two weeks after the CE vowed probe
Everything is in place for a commission of inquiry into the city's water contamination scare - except for the chairman and the only other member of the body - the chief secretary says.
No one had yet been named, more than two weeks after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said he would appoint an independent high-level body, led by a judge, to study why drinking water in some public residential estates contained excessive lead.
Leung's No2, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, said yesterday that it was proving tough to find suitable people to conduct the investigation, the third announced into the tainted-water scare.
She also clarified for the first time that just two people - the judge, plus one other - would make up the commission.
"The secretary, secretariat staff, office and hearing venue of the inquiry commission are all ready," Lam said.
Once the pair were found, she would put their names to the Executive Council for a formal appointment. "The most important task at the moment is to find a chairman," Lam said, adding that Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li was looking for a judge to play that role while she sought the second member.
