Experts appointed to probe faking of census data

Three external experts will join a government task force investigating allegations of widespread data fabrication by census field officers.

The inquiry panel, chaired by the Commissioner for Census and Statistics Lily Ou-yang, will complete its probe in six weeks and make recommendations for improvement, it was announced yesterday.

The team will look into the authenticity of data collected by field officers and examine the existing quality assurance systems in data collection.

It will then make recommendations for improvement to the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Professor Chan Ka-keung.

The panel will include Professor Chan Ngai-hang, a statistics scholar at Chinese University; Tse kam-keung, former Oxfam Hong Kong chairman; Vincent Kwan of Hang Seng Indexes Company; and a government economist.

Both Chan and Tse are serving members of the government's Statistics Advisory Board, while Kwan is a former member.