Civil servants will have to seek permission before accepting a 25 per cent discount on tickets offered by China Airlines after concerns the offer from the Taiwan-based carrier could constitute a conflict of interest for some bureaucrats. A spokeswoman for the Civil Service Bureau said department heads would decide whether their officers had any official dealings with the airline that could be viewed as a conflict of interest. She said this was necessary since the airline's offer only applied to civil servants. A circular outlining the government's policy was sent to all departments on Thursday - the day the offer was advertised. 'In the case of China Airlines' offer, the acceptance of the offer will require the special permission of department heads,' the memo stated. The airline has advertised the offer in two local newspapers, addressed to Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen. 'The offer expresses the airline's gratitude towards civil servants for their contribution to Hong Kong's development, and the arrangement supplements the five-day work scheme advocated by the government,' the advertisement reads. Andy Law Kam-mun, assistant to the general manager of China Airlines (Hong Kong branch), said he hoped the discount would encourage more civil servants to take breaks overseas, especially when the five-day working week was now in place. He said the response had been quite good and many civil servants had made phone inquiries over the past two days. Civil servants need only show their staff cards to get the discount when buying standard-fare tickets from travel agents or from the airline's retail offices, he said. The deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Civil Servants' Association, Li Kwai-yin, said the bureau's memo was standard practice. She said colleagues would get approval as long as their work did not constitute a conflict of interest. But she doubted whether the offer was attractive. 'The discounted price offered by the airline is not much lower than that which can be obtained from travel agents. Besides, colleagues often prefer package tours. 'Since we also have to seek approval from the department for these offers, I believe the response would not be good anyway.' The largest civil service union enjoys a wide range of special offers from different organisations for its 100,000 members, such as discounts from travel agents and special mortgage or loan interest rates. Ms Li said discounts were not bound by the civil service rules, since the offers were often available to other unions or social groups.
