Govt failing to stop malls occupying public space

The Lands Department has failed to collect millions of dollars in fees from malls who allow shops to take over public space, the Ombudsman says. Image: Shutterstock

Damon Pang reports

The Ombudsman, Winnie Chiu, has criticised the authorities for making only half-hearted attempts at enforcement action when malls take over public space for commercial purposes, and sometimes even turning a blind eye altogether.



Chiu said on Tuesday that malls "commonly" use public areas for eateries, shops and exhibitions, even though they are not allowed to unless they apply for a waiver.



In an investigation, the watchdog found that the Lands Department has failed to recover fees for such waivers amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years, in connection with more than 60 lease violations.



A report by the Ombudsman gave several examples of lax enforcement action, including one mall which wasn't given a warning letter for a violation until inspectors found the problem was still there 10 months later.



In some cases, when malls failed to take action after being given a warning letter, officials didn't bother to notify the Land Registry (LR) as they were supposed to, and the shopping centres continued to make use of the public space.



The report described the department's enforcement action as lax and ineffective.



"Its measures for tackling the problem, such as registration of warning letters at LR, re-entry of the lot or vesting of the relevant interest to the government in serious cases as well as recovery of waiver fees from the owners of malls, have all been ineffective," it said.



In light of its findings, the watchdog has made a number of recommendations to the Lands Department, including that it stipulates time limits for issuing warnings, that it takes prompt action to recover waiver fees, and that it considers taking legal advice over problems which persist.