Ask someone from Wang Fuk Court what they are waiting for and the answer is short. A name. Someone who looked at the warnings and the paperwork and can say who dropped what.

This week they got two names, just not that kind.

Benjamin Mok Kwan-yu and George Tsoi Kin-pan are being lined up to support the Public Service Commission's probe into the failings around the Wang Fuk Court fire. Dimsum Daily reports both are senior administrative officers. Mok was Deputy Secretary for Security. Tsoi is Commissioner for Sports.

Let me explain why that makes people at the counter raise an eyebrow.

The administrative officer is the top rung of the civil service ladder. It is the grade that runs bureaus and writes the policy. The probe is about how the civil service did its job. So the helpers come from the same family as the people being looked at.

They are senior, they know how the machine works, and that is probably why they were picked. A stranger would need six months to find the right office.

But a resident in Tai Po reads that list and thinks, fair enough, you hired the neighbours to check the neighbours. If I told you my cousin was going to audit my dai pai dong books, you would ask who gets the cousin's cooking at New Year.

The Sports Commissioner part is the bit people will joke about. Fire safety is a long way from stadiums and sports grants. Maybe he is a quick study. Maybe the pool of free senior officers is small.

What to watch for is simple. When the findings come out, do they say who failed, by name or by post, or do they say "lessons were learned"? Wang Fuk Court has waited a long time already. They can tell the difference.