CY in the dark over probe into Australian contract
As Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying faces an investigation into a controversial HK$50 million contract with an Australian company, the graft-buster says it will not brief Leung on related complaints made against him.
The ICAC yesterday had received at least one complaint against Leung following an Australian newspaper report on Wednesday that Leung had pocketed £4 million (HK$50 million) from a listed Australian engineering firm after he agreed to the acquisition of a property services firm of which he was then the chairman for the Asia-Pacific region.
Asked if an investigation had been launched into the allegations against Leung, an ICAC spokeswoman said the agency "would not comment on any individual cases".
"All investigations conducted by the commission will be reported to the Independent Operations Review Committee in accordance with the established procedures," she said.
Both the ICAC commissioner and members of the Operations Review Committee, which oversees all investigations, are appointed by the chief executive.
Democratic Party chief executive Lam Cheuk-ting, a former ICAC investigator, questioned meanwhile why Leung had not yet implemented a recommendation that it be made a criminal offence for the chief executive to solicit or accept any advantage without the permission of a statutory independent committee.
The recommendation was made in 2012 by a committee led by former chief justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang, set up after then chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was accused of receiving favours from tycoon friends.
It effectively extended section three of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance to the chief executive. Leung pledged to implement the recommendations as soon as possible.
"[Leung] has been in office for over two years and it [still] doesn't apply to the chief executive," Lam said. "I suspect he is going easy on himself by delaying the legislation."
Operations Review Committee member Tik Chi-yuen said a case involving the chief executive would be subject to the same kind of scrutiny as any other.
He said the fact that all of the committee members were appointed by the chief executive would not affect its impartiality.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice yesterday said Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung had delegated Director of Public Prosecutions Keith Yeung Kar-hung to handle the case if required to "avoid any possible perception of bias, partiality or improper influence". It said Yeung had "no connection with any persons involved".
