The Hospital Authority accountant responsible for repaying a $202 million debt to the Government twice has resigned.
Chief executive of the Hospital Authority Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong said the financial officer in charge of the re-payment blunder left of his own accord.
The error came after the money, loaned to the authority in late January as 'advance Lunar New Year pay' for 36,000 staff, was repaid early in March and then again at the end of the month. The error was not noticed for three months.
But critics said getting rid of the responsible staff member did not mean the problem had been solved.
'What we need to do is to track down the problems in the whole system and not put the blame on only one staff member,' said ousted legislator Michael Ho Mun-ka.
'If someone should be held responsible, it should include Dr Yeoh and the person in charge of finance, [authority deputy director] Andy Lee Shiu-chuen.' Mr Ho said a similar incident could happen at a hospital level if the whole system of financial scrutiny was not reviewed. 'We could never chase back the money if hospital staff were dealing with private suppliers,' he said.
