Malaysian architect Dr Ken Yeang said he only learned yesterday that he was disqualified from a design contest held 10 years ago, a competition now at the centre of a conflict-of-interest row involving chief executive hopeful Leung Chun-ying.
The architect said officials organising the West Kowloon Reclamation Concept Plan Competition, of which Leung was a judge, never explained to him what happened.
Leung has denied any conflict of interest but confirmed that a director of his firm, DTZ Holdings, had, on request and without payment, given data on land values to Yeang's team. Yeang's entry named DTZ as a property adviser in its submission.
But Yeang said yesterday: 'In the haste in making a competition submission, we may not have informed Mr Leung or his colleagues that his firm was named in the submission.' Staff involved had since left his firm, he added.
Yeang said he did not know Leung personally and did not know he was a member of the jury.
His comments raise more questions about why the government revealed Yeang's disqualification just weeks before the chief executive election. Critics said that in doing so the administration had favoured Leung's chief rival, Henry Tang Ying-yen.