Hong Kong Olympic Committee slammed by lawmakers for lack of proper governance
- Legco members take issue with the fastest swimmer in his event being ignored for the 2018 Asian Games and his place going to someone else
- Transparency is also questioned with athletes unaware of selection criteria, while any review is done by the same selection panel
Legislative Council members on Monday questioned the governance of the Hong Kong Olympic Committee in its selection of athletes for major international games.
Members accused the sports governing body of lacking transparency when selecting athletes for the 2018 Asian Games at the council’s Public Accounts Committee meeting, following up the Audit Commission’s Report 74 released last month.
They cited the case of a swimmer who was the fastest in Hong Kong in his event but was not selected, and instead someone below his standard took his place at the Jakarta Games two years ago.
Members also claimed it was unfair that athletes were not informed the selection criteria included being a scholarship athlete at the Sports Institute. The Olympic committee’s selection panel stated it only dealt with NSAs and not athletes.
“The Olympic Committee spends HK$20 million a year of public money but has it been fair to the athletes?” asked committee chairman Abraham Razack, who is also known as Shek Lai-him. “From the swimming case, we can see the situation is not ideal as the Olympic Committee has not done enough. The case has highlighted the problem of value in the use of public money.”