League of Social Democrats chairman Avery Ng Man-yuen, who made a complaint to the ICAC. Photo: Felix Wong
Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1933774/hong-kong-graft-buster-probe-conflict-interest-allegations Politics
Hong Kong graft-buster ‘to probe conflict of interest allegations against senior civil servant’
Pan-democrat activist who filed complaint against Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee over property deal says Independent Commission Against Corruption has decided to investigate case
Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee, who was the subject of a complaint to the ICAC, attends the opening of a Bruce Lee exhibition in Hong Kong. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption will investigate conflict of interest accusations against a top Home Affairs Bureau civil servant, a pan-democrat activist said on Tuesday.
League of Social Democrats chairman Avery Ng Man-yuen, who filed a complaint to the ICAC on Saturday, told the Post an anti-graft officer had informed him of the decision.
But an ICAC spokesman told the Post it does not comment on individual cases.
Ng’s disclosure came hours after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying promised to handle alleged graft cases “strictly and seriously”.
Asked about the accusations made against Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee, Leung said: “The government attaches a great deal of importance to these kinds of issues.
“We will handle it seriously – but since it was reported to the ICAC, I would make no further comment.”
News portal HK01 reported on Friday that, in 2013, Fung signed an agreement with a company run by Cheyenne Chan. Under the deal, Fung swapped her One Robinson Place property in Mid-Levels for the company’s two properties in Happy Valley. Fung would pay Chan’s company HK$6.5 million.
Chan is a shareholder of another company, Sky Shuttle, a commercial helicopter operator, while Fung’s husband, Wilson Fung Wing-yip, was a civil servant in charge of aviation affairs from 2003 to 2006.
He worked at the Economic Development and Labour Bureau, which later split into two bureaus.
In a statement issued on Friday, Fung dismissed HK01’s report as untrue.
But on Tuesday the Oriental Daily reported that after obtaining the two Happy Valley flats, work was carried out to convert the two properties into one.
However, instead of applying for rate waivers as one unit, Fung allegedly made an application for each of the two and benefited from a difference of about HK$12,000 in the last three years.
The Rating and Valuation Department (RVD) did not respond to the Post’s inquiry yesterday on whether the reports were accurate, but a Home Affairs Bureau spokeswoman said Fung had written to the RVD to follow-up on the matter.