ICAC asked to tighten rules on repayment of expenses

The Director of Audit called on the city's graft-buster to review its reimbursement system after the facts of how it fudged entertaining expenses to exceed budget limits on two official dinners came to light.

The report released by the Audit Commission on Wednesday revealed that two dinners hosted by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in December 2011 for an international anti-bribery event had exceeded the permitted budget.

The cost of a dinner hosted by then-commissioner Timothy Tong Hin-ming to entertain 110 international guests on December 8 was HK$1,045 per head, more than twice the official HK$450 ceiling. However, an assistant director approved their cost as publicity expenditure instead of entertainment expenses.

Director of Audit David Sun Tak-kei said the case exposed a grey area in ICAC's guidelines on entertainment expenses.

"It is not a definite breach of regulation because the whole project was for publicity, so they put it as a publicity fee ... But there is a grey area. I think it is against the spirit of the whole guidelines," he said.

The cost for another dinner hosted for 24 people two days earlier was HK$431 per head.