Decision to deregister Highlands Tower engineer upheld
29/07/2005 The Sun

KUALA LUMPUR: The Board of Appeal of the Board of Engineers of Malaysia Friday upheld a decision by the Board of Engineers to deregister professional engineer Wong Yuen Kean, who was involved in the development of the Highland Towers project.

The three-man committee, chaired by Datuk Abdul Hamid Embong and engineers, Datuk Wan Mohamed Ismail and Datuk Pang Leong Hoon delivered the decision Friday at the Public Works Department headquarters, Kuala Lumpur.

The Board of Engineers had earlier convened a displinary hearing and found Wong guilty on Aug 5, 2004 on two charges and struck out his name from the register of engineers.

The charges stated that Wong as a registered professional engineer who was responsible for the drainage design for the development of the Highland Towers project and the construction supervision of the drainage system - despite knowingly or ought to have known that the whole of drainage system had not been completed - had advised or assisted in the application to Majlis Daerah Gombak for the issuance of the Certificate of Fitness for Occupation and thereby, he had failed, refused and neglected to take full regard of the public interest.

The second charge stated that Wong as a registered professional engineer, who was responsible for the building/structural plans for the development of the Highland Towers project and the construction and supervision of the drainage system:

failed to give due consideration to the steep hill and slope directly behind the three apartments blocks and failed to foresee the danger of a landslide producing a lateral load against the foundation of the building;
failed to exercise due care to either design and construct a foundation to accommodate the lateral load or ensure that the slope was reasonably stable and thereby failed and neglected to take full regard of the pubilic interest.

On Dec 11, 1993, one of the Highland Towers block collapsed, resulting the death of 48 people.