The Government announced today it has refused the application for renewal of registration of Aggressive Construction Engineering, the contractor involved in a fatal incident at a Yau Tong construction site in December 2022.

The contractor's registration expired in December last year. In view of the fatal incident caused by the collapse of a steel beam at the construction site, the Buildings Department referred the contractor's application for renewal of registration to the Contractors Registration Committee for interview and assessment.

Having carefully considered the committee's recommendation, the department decided to refuse its application for renewal of registration.

The contractor’s name will be removed from the Register of General Building Contractors on November 16 and it cannot carry out any building works from that date onwards.

As at October 16, Aggressive Construction Engineering was carrying out building works for five private residential and residential/commercial development projects involving about 4,900 domestic units, amongst which about 1,700 units of three projects had been pre-sold.

Speaking to reporters today, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn said the decision to refuse the contractor's application may cause inconvenience to the ongoing works, but the Government must strike a balance between ensuring construction site safety and facilitating projects so as to allow the renewal system to act as a gatekeeper. 

Ms Linn pointed out that the Government has a multipronged approach in enforcing the law against mishaps at construction sites.

“This multipronged approach involves prosecution under the relevant laws (and) disciplinary action against the relevant contractors or professionals, again, also under the relevant laws.

“Also, this process (includes) considering whether an existing registration should be removed.

“And finally, we have another measure for contractors which are listed in our tendering list for public works projects. We may consider suspending or removing their status as a potential tenderer altogether.

“The various approaches under all the regimes involve very serious investigation, prosecution and other follow-up actions. So inevitably, it may take some time.”

She added that with reference to past experience, as long as the project developers and the authorised persons make good use of the coming one month or so to appoint as soon as possible another registered contractor to take over the remaining works, the impact of changing contractor on the project progress should be manageable.

In addition, it is roughly estimated that currently around 900 site staff are involved in the contractor's five projects. Given that the current regulatory action is only targeted at the main contractor involved and the development projects will continue to be taken forward, it is possible that the contractor to be appointed by the developer may continue to engage the same project sub-contractors and construction workers.

In view of the current labour shortage in the construction industry, it is believed that there will not be a significant impact on the employment of the workers at the construction sites concerned.

The contractor being refused renewal of registration is not involved in the fatal incident at the construction site on Anderson Road last year and the fatal incident at the construction site in Yau Ma Tei last week.

The contractor involved in those two incidents is Aggressive Construction Company, which is under the same holding company.

The registration of Aggressive Construction Company expired in April and the department is processing its application for renewal of registration as soon as possible.