Firstly, my thoughts are with the survivor, and the families of the two students, and the residents of the building whose lives have been turned upside down. This is an absolute tragedy.
Self-certification should never be allowed: I can only hope that it is scrapped soon as it is a preposterous situation that will always be to the detriment of strata dwellers in the short and medium term.
As to the SM somehow being responsible, they can only act with the instruction of the OC; most newly appointed SMs would undertake an audit and then make recommendations to the EC. Generally the EC will baulk at the costs and a plan is drawn up giving the most urgent items precedence. In the case of new buildings, this involves litigation and therefore it becomes a lengthy process. The onus for poor development sits with the developer, not the SM, but, assuming the developer didn’t set up a Phoenix company it still requires a very persistent and vigilant EC and SM to chase the developer, so you have an additionally flawed situation (unpai volunteers and a professional who can mostly only ‘advise’ ) trying to rectify the rubbish of shoddy development work and self-certification.
There has to be a better way…..