I would like to respond to Jake van der Kamp's Monitor column (Business Post, February 4) which seemed to have mixed up the figure in the Chief Secretary for Administration's speech at the opening of the Financial Action Task Force plenary meeting on January 30 and those published on the Joint Financial Intelligence Unit's Web site.
In his speech, Mr Tsang was quoting the total amount of assets either restrained, confiscated or recovered in recent years. According to information from the police, a total of $1.803 million has been restrained, $104 million confiscated pending recovery, and $364 million recovered by the Government under the Drug Trafficking (Recovery of Proceeds) Ordinance and the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance as at November 31, 2001. The total sum of the above three categories is about $2.3 billion.
Hence that particular paragraph in Mr Tsang's speech read as: 'Using Hong Kong as one small example, a total of some $2.3 billion or over $290 million in assets has either been restrained, confiscated or recovered in recent years. This is the direct result of action taken by our authorities under the Drug Trafficking and Organised and Serious Crimes legislation.'
However, Jake van der Kamp only singled out $356 million from the Joint Financial Intelligence Unit's Web site, the amount confiscated and paid to the Government, as comparison. These two sets of figures, of course, cannot tally.
CLARIE LO
Commissioner for Narcotics
