最终，是当时宏福苑大火发生时的房屋局局长何永贤承担了责任。她的辞职是在数周的政界传言之后发生的，传言称局长们不必为这场造成168人死亡、1984个家庭流离失所的悲剧负责。
In the end, it was Winnie Ho Wing-yin, housing secretary at the time of the Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po, who took the rap. Her resignation came after weeks of talk within political circles suggesting that bureau chiefs would not have to bear responsibility for the tragedy that killed 168 people and displaced 1,984 families.
这些言论引发了震惊。有人公开反对这种说法，包括前行政长官办公室新闻统筹冯伟光和退休政务官卢伟聪。两人均提醒公众，香港实行问责制，政治责任是其中不可或缺的一部分。
These suggestions were met with shock. Some spoke out against such talk, including Andrew Fung Wai-kwong, former information coordinator for the Chief Executive’s Office, and retired administrative officer Mike Rowse. Both reminded the public that Hong Kong has a ministerial system, and that political responsibility is very much part of the package.
已故前特首董建华创立的政治问责制要求政治委任官员为任内失职下台，即使他们个人并无过错。然而，数周来几乎鲜有提及政治问责，尽管很明显调查报告将牵涉房屋局的独立监察组、发展局的屋宇署、保安局的消防处以及劳工及福利局的劳工处。
The political accountability system created by the late Tung Chee-hwa demands that political appointees step down for failures on their watch, even if they were not personally responsible. Yet, for weeks, political accountability was hardly mentioned even though it was clear the report on the fire would implicate the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit, the Development Bureau’s Buildings Department, the Security Bureau’s Fire Services Department and the Labour and Welfare Bureau’s Labour Department.
在调查报告结果的记者会上，行政长官李家超被追问其他官员是否会同样承担责任。他表示自己已反省自身行动，并称他和团队其余成员将留任，推行改革以确保此类悲剧不再发生。
At the press conference on the findings of the investigation report, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was grilled on whether the other ministers would similarly take responsibility. He said he himself had reflected on his own actions, and that he and the rest of the team would stay on to execute the reforms needed to make sure such a tragedy would not happen again.
李家超表示，其官员向他负责，并称何永贤的辞职是他在综合考量各种因素后作出的“个人政治决定”。
Lee said his ministers were accountable to him, and called Ho’s resignation his “personal political decision” after a comprehensive evaluation of various considerations.
作为他的政治委任官员，他们当然要对李家超负责。但政治问责不应是李家超的“个人政治决定”。归根结底，公众必须确信，对于导致悲剧的政府部门推诿扯皮，已付出了足够的政治代价。
As his political appointees, they are of course accountable to him. But political accountability should not be Lee’s “personal political decision”. At the end of the day, the public has to be satisfied that enough of a political price has been paid for the government departments’ buck-passing that contributed to the tragedy.
一名部长辞职以及政府的道歉——这几乎是在灾难发生一年后才出现——可能还不够。不利的公众反应，特别是幸存者的反应，将质疑李家超的政治判断。
The resignation of one minister and the government’s apology – which came almost a year after the disaster – may not be enough. An unfavourable public reaction, particularly reactions of the survivors, would call into question Lee’s political judgment.
负责调查火灾的独立调查委员会发现，“没有政府部门对各项消防安全问题承担有效责任，关于火灾隐患的投诉陷入真空”，这清楚地表明失职横跨不同部门。
The independent committee tasked with investigating the fire found that “no government department took effective ownership of various fire safety issues, and complaints about fire hazards fell into a vacuum”, making it clear that the lapses cut across different departments.
报告点名批评屋宇署与独立核查组——这两个“主要负责”监督宏福苑翻新工程的机构——缺乏协调，导致未能履行“确保此类工程安全的监管职责”。报告称，这些失职是“系统性和多层次的”；总之是“以下缺陷的组合：缺乏危机意识、监管疏漏、系统性盲区和执法失效”。
The report called out the lack of coordination between the Buildings Department and the Independent Checking Unit – the two agencies “primarily responsible” for supervising the renovation of Wang Fuk Court – that resulted in a failure of their “supervisory duties in ensuring the safety of such works”. The failings were “systemic and multi-layered”, the report said; in summary, “a combination of the following deficiencies: lack of a sense of crisis, regulatory lapses, systemic blind spots, and enforcement failures”.
如果这些部门尽到职责堵塞监管漏洞，充分重视居民投诉并处理显而易见的风险，“宏福苑私营方面的不当行为和火灾隐患本有真正可能在火灾发生前得到整改”。
Had those departments done their part to plug the regulatory loopholes, paid sufficient attention to residents’ complaints and addressed the clear and obvious risks, there would have been “a real possibility that the misconduct of the private-sector parties and the fire hazards in Wang Fuk Court could have been rectified before the fire”.
报告指出，独立核查组是政府在2000年推出的改革措施的一部分，此前1990年代末一连串打桩丑闻震动全港。如今该机构竟成为大埔惨剧的罪魁祸首，实在令人难以置信。它成立之初是为了行使监督和监察职能，现在却因失职渎职而面临撤销。
The report noted that the Independent Checking Unit was established as part of the reform measures the government undertook in 2000, following a series of piling scandals that rocked the city in the late 1990s. For the agency to now become a culprit in the Tai Po disaster is unfathomable. It was set up to exercise oversight and monitoring. Now it is to be shut down for the dereliction of its duties.
李家超必须明白，仅仅推出改革是不够的。政府过去曾推出改革，旨在解决建筑业几十年来存在的漏洞和恶习。然而，在改革后的体制下，负责监督和执法的人员态度松懈，最终酿成这场悲剧。
Lee must understand that it is not enough to introduce reforms. The government rolled out reforms in the past that were meant to address loopholes and bad practices in the construction sector that had gone on for decades. Yet lax attitudes by those responsible for oversight and enforcement in a reformed system led to this tragedy.
因此，虽然改革必要，但确保任何新制度切实有效同样重要。在推出更多改革之前，重点应放在彻查改革为何失败。
So while reforms are necessary, it’s equally important to ensure that any new systems are effective. Getting to the bottom of why reforms failed, before we introduce more of them, needs to be the focus.
除了改革和修订立法外，公务员敍用委员会旗下的一个小组将追究数十名警务人员和公务员的责任。该小组有三个月时间调查这种推卸责任的文化究竟是如何形成的。我们应预期会有更多人问责下台，因为不仅制度失灵，操作制度的人也失职得惊人。
In addition to the reforms and amendments to legislation, a team under the Public Service Commission will assess the culpability of dozens of officers and civil servants. It has three months to look into how exactly that culture of buck-passing came to be. We should expect more heads to roll, because not only did the system fail but the people manning the system failed spectacularly, too.