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Jimmy Cheung

Tung Chee-hwa told Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung there was no need for him to quit over the so-called Lexus scandal, even before Mr Leung tendered a written explanation and resignation letter last month.

The revelation emerged yesterday as legislators questioned Mr Leung over his failure to declare a conflict of interest over his purchase of a luxury car just before he imposed a hefty motor tax rise in his March 5 Budget, increasing car prices.

Six days after the scandal broke on March 9, Mr Tung claimed that Mr Leung had offered to resign. But Mr Tung refused to accept the offer.

The Legislative Council will today decide whether to invoke special power to further investigate the matter with a select committee.

Repeatedly questioned by lawmakers at Legco's constitutional affairs panel yesterday, Mr Leung gave a detailed account of the resignation offer which some lawmakers said they regarded with scepticism.

Mr Leung said he verbally informed Mr Tung on March 10 that he would resign if necessary.

'But Mr Tung accepted it was an oversight and said it was not necessary for me to resign,' Mr Leung said. He added that the reply came before he even tabled his first written report to Mr Tung that afternoon.

But Mr Leung said he later re-considered his resignation and formally told Mr Tung in the evening that he still wanted to quit.

He told legislators that he handed in the resignation letter to Mr Tung in person the next day. However, in a letter to the panel last night, Mr Leung clarified that instead of tendering his resignation on March 11 he actually handed it over on March 12.

Democrat Cheung Man-kwong said: 'As more blunders emerge, it seems Mr Leung is the director of his own movie in this whole scandal.'

Independent legislator Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee said she too had doubts about the resignation letter. 'It doesn't seem to me that it is correspondence between two persons. It's like something written for the record.'

But Mr Leung was adamant that the letter was handed to Mr Tung. 'There is no question of us making up the story,' he said.



Tung rejected Leung's offer to quit before it went in writing