Turmoil at Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog turns to farce as chief withdraws resignation
The Independent Commission Against Corruption No 2, Ricky Yau Shu-chun, quit then withdrew his resignation within a matter of hours
Trouble at the top of the Independent Commission Against Corruption turned to farce on Friday night as the agency’s No 2 quit then withdrew his resignation within a matter of hours.
At 6.26pm yesterday the commission announced that the acting head of the ICAC’s powerful investigative arm – the Operations Department – Ricky Yau Shu-chun was leaving to be replaced by a returning veteran, Ricky Yu Chun-cheong.
But just 2-1/2 hours later, at 8.59pm – after what sources describe as a series of “emotional” crisis meetings – the commission released a statement saying Yau had withdrawn his resignation “after staff members of the Operations Department expressed profound wishes for him to remain in office and after having considered the overall interest of the commission”.
The turmoil followed the departure of the ICAC’s first female head of operations, Rebecca Li Bo-lan, earlier this month, amid unconfirmed allegations over soft-peddling on a probe into Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and bitter personality clashes in the organisation.