Chief graft-buster Timothy Tong Hin-ming has rejected a media report that Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen urged him over lunch to investigate allegations of false statements by his successor, Leung Chun-ying.
Tong (pictured), the commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, also insisted yesterday that there was no conflict of interest in having lunch with Tsang at Government House at the same time the ICAC is investigating the departing leader's dealings with tycoons.
The commissioner was responding to a Chinese newspaper report that Tsang had urged him at lunch on Monday to investigate Leung's claims during the chief executive election campaign that he had no illegal structures at his home on The Peak. It has emerged there were six.
'There was no discussion on cases,' said Tong, 62, who retires on Saturday. 'I can tell you that the chief executive is not in a position, not in the past, not at present, and, I would like to believe, not for the future, to direct how or what to investigate.'
He said Tsang had treated him to lunch to express gratitude for his five years' work fighting bribery and corruption.
Tsang did not comment on the issue, but his office issued a statement expressing regret over the 'fabricated' media report.
Tong said the lunch was a standard practice for outgoing officials and insisted that there was no conflict of interest in lunching with Tsang, while his investigators were looking into the chief executive's acceptance of rides in yachts and private jets owned by tycoons.