WHEN large amounts of taxpayers' money are involved, as in the case of the contract terms enjoyed by the outgoing Chief Executive of the Provisional Airport Authority (PAA), the Government cannot be allowed to duck questions on the financial implications of his departure. In the two years between Mr Richard Allen's hiring and departure by mutual agreement this week, his salary and perks are understood to have cost the taxpayer up to $8 million. If that agreement involved a substantial ''golden handshake'', the public is entitled to know why such a move was felt necessary, and how much it has cost. The Government's refusal to disclose details, on the grounds that it is a private matter between employer and employee, is totally unacceptable in this case, and legislators are wholly justified in seeking answers and explanations.
Open government has been one of the watchwords of the Patten administration, and that principle has to apply equally when the news is bad, as well as when it is good (which has not been often in recent months). Producing technical excuses that the PAA isnot strictly part of Government is a hair-splitting evasion, not supported by recent events. Details were given when two executives were paid off by the Kowloon and Canton Railway, a similar body, in 1989.
Failure to provide information to shareholders - and the Hongkong public is effectively acting in that capacity in the case of the PAA - is a very serious matter under company law, and the Government cannot evade its responsibility to account for itself.To remain silent only fuels unhealthy speculation which is neither fair to Mr Allen nor to the organisation he leaves behind. The sheer size of the airport programme, and its importance to the future development of Hongkong, make it imperative that the Government reassures the public that it has made the right decisions at a time of such uncertainty over the whole project. If part of the ''mutual agreement'' with Mr Allen was a pact of silence on both sides, it was a vow of silence that should be broken.