Chan under pressure to resign over flats scandal

Pressure mounted on Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po yesterday to step down after he backtracked on earlier statements that he knew nothing about illegally subdivided flats owned by a company controlled by his wife.

Candidates for next month's Legislative Council elections said it was no longer appropriate for Chan to stay as head of a bureau that supervises buildings and he should resign as soon as possible.

This followed a dramatic midnight response by Chan to weekend media reports that sub-leasing had been part of sales agreements for three blocks of flats bought by Harvest Charm Development at a time when he and wife Frieda Hui Po-ming were both directors.

Hui - the nominal controlling shareholder of the company - was also found to have sold a flat with sublease contract in 2009, implying the couple should have known about the unauthorised division of the flats.

It contradicted their earlier comments that neither knew about the rental arrangements and raised questions about Chan's integrity in the latest blow to scandal-plagued Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's efforts to regain public trust.

Urged by Executive Council convenor Lam Woon-kwong to give a full account on Sunday, Chan responded by issuing a statement at 11.59pm that day - bringing fresh accusations that he had timed the statement to attract the least media attention.