In August, the then director of audit, Dominic Chan Yin-tat, who was due to retire shortly, expressed concern over the independence and credibility of his department following a press report suggesting that a non-professional accountant might be appointed as his successor.
He warned that it would be a retrograde step if the government named an administrative officer to head the Audit Commission.
Three months later, that is just what happened, as career civil servant Benjamin Tang Kwok-bun was appointed to the post. Mr Tang is, by all accounts, a nice person who has performed competently in his previous postings. But that is not the issue.
The problem, in the eyes of many people - including the Legislative Council's public accounts committee, is that he does not possess the professional qualifications of an accountant. In contrast, Mr Chan joined the government as an auditor in 1969 and worked in that role for the next 26 years, before becoming director in 1995.
Mr Tang, on the other hand, has worked in various government departments, in Hong Kong and overseas. This, no doubt, gives him a good understanding of how the government operates, and will help him immensely in his new job. But the fact remains that he lacks basic qualifications as an accountant.
