Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On said yesterday that it was Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosario who suggested that Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) Director Raymond Tam Vai Man be appointed director of the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) for a one-year term while remaining in his existing post.

Chui made the remarks while speaking to reporters at Galaxy Macau’s JW Marriott Hotel Macau in Cotai where he attended a reception celebrating the 115th anniversary of local Portuguese lender BNU.

According to yesterday’s Official Gazette (BO), Chui yesterday appointed Tam to temporarily take on the function of director of the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau for a one-year term – meaning that he heads the weather station during the period while concurrently continuing to head the Environmental Protection Bureau.

The day after Super Typhoon Hato pummelled Macau on August 23 and killed 10, Chui accepted then SMG Director Fong Soi Kun’s resignation over the latter’s controversial handling of Hato’s warning signals. Fong submitted his resignation for “personal reasons”, according to the government.

Since then, SMG Deputy Director Leong Ka Cheng had been the acting director of the bureau. Fong had headed the weather bureau
since late 1998. Leong will continue as the observatory’s deputy director. 

Late last month, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) launched an investigation into the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau over its typhoon forecasting process and internal management, especially over Fong’s controversial handling of Hato’s warning signals.

When asked by the media yesterday about Tam’s appointment, Chui said that it was Rosario who proposed that Tam temporarily carry out the functions of SMG director after taking a number of factors into consideration, adding that he agreed with Rosario’s suggestion.

Chui pointed out that the CCAC has launched an investigation into the weather bureau and that he has ordered the setting-up of a commission tasked with investigating whether any government entities or officials were at fault in their response to Hato. He said
that the two investigations are still underway.

Chui also said that a delegation of 22 experts from the National Commission for Disaster Reduction recently visited Macau and made on-site inspections earlier this month and that the commission would provide the local government with opinions and suggestions,
such as improvements to the government’s civil protection structure and the way the government informs the city’s residents about the possible threats of typhoons and other major disasters.

When asked by the media about the fact that Tam does not have professional meteorological knowledge, Chui replied that the government takes “the overall public administration as a whole” into consideration when it appoints the heads of different public sector entities.

“In public administration, it is typical that [a government entity] is headed by someone with managerial skills and that his or her subordinates carry out their professional duties…As the head [of a government entity], he or she can be a professional with extensive
managerial experience. There are also some cases in which a qualified professional is promoted to head [the respective entity] before
attending management courses with the aim of improving his or her managerial skills. In some other cases, an official takes up the leadership position [in a government entity] before he or she studies the respective knowledge required,” Chui said.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Macau Post Daily over the phone, Tam said that as an official, he ought to show courage in accepting a new job arrangement by his superiors. He pledged that he will learn the weather bureau’s operation as quickly as possible, adding he was confident that he can do the job well and integrate well with the SMG team.

Tam said that he understood that Macau’s civil society has high expectations of the observatory improving its mechanism for weather forecasting.

Tam, a civil engineer by profession, previously headed the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM).

Tam said that he had a meeting with the several department heads of the weather bureau yesterday – the first day he assumed his new
post – to get to know them.

Tam said that the bureau would review its mechanism for hoisting typhoon signals after studying opinions from civil society and experts that were raised after Typhoon Hato.

Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On speaks to reporters at Galaxy Macau’s JW Marriott Hotel Macau in Cotai yesterday. Photos: MPDG

Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) Director Raymond Tam Vai Man speaks to reporters at the World Trade Centre Macau in Zape in June.