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A high-profile legislator has urged former governor General Vasco Rocha Vieira to give an explanation over the use of public funds from Macau to set up a controversial Lisbon-based cultural foundation.

 Leonel Alves, considered the de facto leader of the former enclave's 10,000 Macanese, made the appeal on Macau Television.

 He said he assumed the establishment of the foundation was based on 'noble objectives'.

 General Vieira remains silent pending the outcome of an independent inquiry into the row, ordered by Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah last month.

 A spokesman for the three-member inquiry panel said it was expected to be completed within 45 days.

 A report on Radio Macau said the foundation, named after 16th-century Portuguese seafarer Jorge Alvares, would issue a statement on the matter at the second plenum of its board of curators this week.

 Macau community leaders and media have expressed shock and indignation at the unannounced transfer of $50 million from the public Macau Development and Co-operation Foundation (MDCF) to the private Jorge Alvares Foundation in Lisbon.

 Another $50 million came from casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun's company, STDM. General Vieira, who chaired the MDCF until the handover, is chairman of the Jorge Alvares Foundation and suggestions have been made that he has done a 'deal with himself'.

 Macau pro-democracy lawmaker Ng Kuok-cheong has described the transfer as 'theft'.



Former governor pressed on $50m