Rowse wins fight to clear his name over 'Fest
A High Court judge yesterday threw out a civil service disciplinary panel's finding that investment promotion chief Mike Rowse was guilty of misconduct for his handling of the HarbourFest concerts five years ago.
Quashing the decision to fine the InvestHK chief a month's pay - HK$156,660 - and give him an official warning for failing to properly scrutinise budgets for the concerts, Mr Justice Michael Hartmann cited procedural unfairness.
He said Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen had exceeded his powers when he delegated to the then chief secretary, Rafael Hui Si-yan, the hearing of Mr Rowse's appeal against the panel's findings.
But the judge made no ruling as to whether Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen had been justified in ordering the deletion from minutes of a meeting his comment that he 'did not observe any trace of irregularity in the organisation and implementation' of HarbourFest.
The judge said: 'Only two months before [Mr Rowse] was made the subject of disciplinary proceedings, a request from the Finance Branch to delete these words from the minutes [was] at face value strange.
'It is not for this court to ... question the good faith of those who brought about the amendments.'
In February, when he heard evidence during Mr Rowse's judicial review, Mr Justice Hartmann had said the deletion 'looks like political manoeuvring'.
He also wrote in his 80-page judgment: 'The public disappointment at the outcome of HarbourFest led to a demand for accountability, undoubtedly, in my view, giving a 'political' colouring to [Rowse's] disciplinary proceedings.'
The minutes showed Mr Tang had also said that 'with hindsight, all parties concerned might have underestimated the complexity involved, and it was a very ambitious attempt in putting together the event within such a short time span'.
The HK$100 million series of concerts was staged to help restore Hong Kong's image and revive its economy in the wake of the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic.
Mr Rowse was found guilty of five counts of misconduct by an inquiry committee comprising two civil servants.
In March 2005, he sought to appeal against the findings to the chief executive, but Mr Hui instead heard the appeal and dismissed it.
Outside court, Mr Rowse called the judgment 'a tremendous victory for the rule of law in Hong Kong'.
'I'm naturally very delighted at the judge's ruling,' the 59-year-old, who will retire this year, said.
The government had no comment.
