Never again

The MSAR Government announced the establishment of an ‘internal’ committee to review the system for handling serious crises and to follow-up the improvements, a dispatch released yesterday in the Official Gazette revealed.
The committee includes all five Secretaries of the government as well as the Commissioner-General of the Unitary Police Service, and the Director-General of the Macao Customs Service. The committee will be headed by the Chief Executive.
As such, the public expressed doubts about whether the committee would be able to adequately and objectively scrutinize the actions of government departments.
Victor Chan Chi Ping, the director of the Government Information Bureau (GCS) noted during yesterday’s press conference that the establishment of the committee to review the government follows the procedures similar to situations of dereliction of duty by civil servants.
“The dispatch [in the Official Gazette] also states clearly that the committee would invite individuals from the society and experts to discuss matters,” said Chan. “The Chief Executive also said earlier today [that departments] have to listen to opinions from the society.”
According to the dispatch, the aim of the committee is to review the current crisis management mechanism, including weather forecasting, co-ordination of civil protection work, delivery of information as well as the current condition of related infrastructure.
The committee will also evaluate the roles of various public departments in dealing with different levels of crises, as well as studying how to strengthen public awareness in the event of a crisis.
In addition, measures of improvement will be studied and created in areas such as awareness education, daily coordination of prevention measures and the strengthening of security and rescue operations.