A Home Affairs Bureau official would have reconsidered attending a meeting last year with Gary Cheng Kai-nam to discuss sports policy if he knew Cheng may have been acting as a paid public relations consultant rather than in his capacity as a legislator, Cheng's fraud trial was told yesterday.
The prosecution has alleged Cheng exploited his position as a legislator to further his PR business and failed to disclose a paid consultancy role with the Sports Development Board in dealings with the official over the composition of the board.
Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Arthur Ng Sek-hon said Cheng invited him to a coffee shop on March 21 last year to discuss the expansion of the board, whose members are nominated by the Home Affairs Department and appointed by the Chief Executive.
'Only Mr Cheng and I were there in that meeting . . . Mr Cheng inquired to me about the progress of membership appointment of the expanded Sports Development Board . . . He did not recommend to me any specific person to be appointed to the new board,' Mr Ng said in a witness statement read in court.
Former legislator Cheng, 51, denies misconduct in public office, accepting an advantage as a public servant, false accounting and two counts of theft.
Mr Ng said he was responsible for proposing a list of members for the new board after a bill increasing its membership was passed in January last year.
