Lawmakers who attended yesterday’s Macau Forum as guest speakers called for the full implementation of an accountability system for senior officials. Some of the lawmakers in yesterday’s forum also demanded that senior officials be held accountable for the recent Super Typhoon Hato disaster.
The weekly open-air debate is hosted by government-owned broadcaster TDM in Areia Preta Park every Sunday.
Five directly-elected lawmakers were asked to attend yesterday’s Macau Forum to reveal what they plan to do in the legislature’s new term that started last Monday. Yesterday’s focus of the forum was on a report released last week by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) on the findings of an investigation into the city’s weather station over its heavily criticised typhoon forecasting process and internal management.
The report released by the anti-graft body on Thursday shows that the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG), when forecasting typhoons and hoisting typhoon warning signals, simply replied on the personal judgement and decisions of its former director Fong Soi Kun – who resigned the day after Super Typhoon Hato hit Macau in late August, killing 10, injuring 244 and causing damage estimated by the government at over 11 billion patacas.
Audience members attend TDM’s Macau Forum in Areia Preta Park yesterday, as lawmaker Au Kam San (third from left on the panel) addresses the open-air debate, while fellow lawmakers (second left to second from right, excluding from Au) Jose Pereira Coutinho, Angela Leong On Kei, Becky Song Pek Kei and Wong Kit Cheng look on. As is customary, two TDM staff are seated on the far right and left of the panel. Photo: MPDG
