Public Eye | Who was guarding the guards during Tong's reign?

Let's recap: Timothy Tong Hin-ming has been the ICAC commissioner for five years. What did he do during that time? He allegedly wined and dined with the people's money, took siestas in his office after boozy lunches, boiled herbal tea, stocked up on pricey mao-tai to entertain mainland officials, and took his girlfriend and mainland tycoon pals to official functions rather than other ICAC officials.

What were all the watchdog groups set up to oversee the ICAC doing in those five years? Were they "watchdogging" or perhaps partaking in the mao-tai? Media reports said Tong took an ICAC delegation on an eight-day trip to Sichuan after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.

Never mind that they spent just one day in the earthquake-hit areas but three days visiting tourist spots. The question is what the hell the Sichuan quake had to do with the ICAC anyway? It has no power to investigate the corrupt pocketing of Hong Kong donations by mainland officials.

Surely, that would have been a no-brainer question for the watchdog committees.

The Department of Justice now says there are grounds for an ICAC criminal investigation into its former boss. Tong didn't exactly hide his extravagance.

Is there no red flag system in our government that the DoJ had to rely on media exposés of Tong's wrongdoing to realise there were grounds for a criminal investigation?