Ex-police chief to join New World

Former police commissioner Tsang Yam-pui has been appointed an executive director by NWS Holdings, the services flagship of New World Development.

In an announcement published yesterday, NWS Holdings' chairman, Henry Cheng Kar-shun, said Mr Tsang's appointment would take effect from June 10 - six months after the former police chief retired.

Mr Cheng said that a separate announcement regarding Mr Tsang's appointment would be issued when the appointment took affect.

NWS corporate communications general manager Kwan Chuk-fai said they would be discussing what Mr Tsang would be doing for the company, whose business includes public transport, exhibitions, infrastructure and construction.

Mr Tsang served on the force for 38 years and has virtually no business background, but Mr Kwan said that he was picked for his management skills.

'He has abundant experience and great exposure from his former job. We believe his general management skills would be helpful to us,' Mr Kwan said.

Mr Tsang, who retired on December 9, is understood to be undergoing a six-month 'sanitisation period' before taking up his new job.

His move is understood to have been vetted and approved by the Advisory Committee on Post-retirement Employment.

The committee vetted 76 applications from 52 civil servants of directorate ranks last year. Only one application was rejected.

Legislator James To Kun-sun said retired senior officials should be required to undergo a sanitisation period of at least one or two years.

But a spokesman for the Civil Service Bureau yesterday said the advisory committee had considered and imposed conditions on each post-retirement employment application on its own merits. He said all retired civil servants had to seek approval before taking up employment or engaging in business, the principal part of which was carried out in Hong Kong.