ICAC advised government that Mega Events Fund should be shut down in 2010
Mega Events Fund failed to mention graft-buster suggested it be wound up before it applied for a further HK$150 million in funding - and got it
Lawmakers yesterday slammed the officials running the government's HK$250 million Mega Events Fund for hiding key information from the Legislative Council Finance Committee.
When applying for HK$150 million at a meeting of the committee in 2012, the fund's secretariat chose not to mention that the Independent Commission Against Corruption had suggested some two years earlier that the fund hand back all unused funds and cease operating, lawmakers revealed yesterday.
They pointed to an Audit Commission report released last month stating that the ICAC "raised its concerns regarding the need for continuing the MEF" in 2010, suggesting unused funds be returned to the government.
As an adviser to the fund, the ICAC felt the economy had improved since it had been set up in 2009 on a three-year tenure with a cash injection of HK$100 million to promote Hong Kong as the events capital of Asia.
Deputy commissioner for tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui told lawmakers at the Public Accounts Committee hearing yesterday that no reference to the ICAC's suggestion was made to the Finance Committee as Legco's economic development panel had been told of it in 2010.
The S outh China Morning Post yesterday found no reference to the matter in the commission's paper submitted to the development panel meeting on November 22 of that year.