The head of Hong Kong’s logistics department, embroiled in a water procurement scandal, has started his pre-retirement leave, while Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has said that civil servants remain subject to the management system until they officially depart.
According to the latest government gazette, Carlson Chan Ka-shun ceased to be the director of the Government Logistics Department on Friday as he began his pre-retirement leave.
His former deputy, Avia Lai Wong Shuk-han, has been appointed as the acting director of the department.
Asked whether the leave was part of disciplinary action taken against the official, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu, who oversees the department, said Chan’s retirement was simply a “normal arrangement”.
He added that the government was addressing the scandal from three angles: the department’s remedial efforts, the Audit Commission’s investigation and a task force that he was chairing to review the incident and come up with recommendations.
Lee told a television programme on Friday that a civil servant was still subject to the management system as long as he or she had not officially left public service and was still on leave.
But he added that it was “too early to comment” on who should be held accountable for any incident or how serious it was.
“A decision is likely to be made after the investigation conducted by the Audit Commission,” Lee said.
Last month, the government was caught in a bottled water procurement scandal in which the logistics department awarded a three-year HK$52.9 million (US$6.8 million) contract to Xin Ding Xin Trade, which allegedly used fraudulent documents.
The company, which was chosen to supply bottled drinking water to some government offices, is suspected of scamming the department and breaching the Trade Descriptions Ordinance.
Chan earlier made a public apology “on behalf of the department”, with Hui ordering it to “take up the main responsibility”.
“We acknowledge that there were procedural inadequacies on our part. On behalf of the Government Logistics Department, I apologise to everyone,” Chan said at the time.
Alongside representatives from other bureaus, he was a member of the Task Force on Review of Government Procurement Regime, established in the wake of the revelation, and led by Hui.
According to an insider, the acting department head will sit in on the task force’s meetings, stressing the review would not be affected.
In his annual policy address on Wednesday, city leader Lee announced the establishment of the new “Heads of Department Accountability System”, which would penalise underperforming senior civil servants and address internal deficiencies.
Under a proposed two-tier investigation system, a department head will be responsible for handling an investigation to identify deficiencies and take disciplinary action against underperforming officers in general cases.
The Public Service Commission, a statutory body advising on public service matters, will be authorised to conduct independent investigations into serious cases.
This includes cases that are widespread, repetitive and systematic, or when the head of the relevant department is believed to be implicated.
But Lee said that the water scandal would be handled by the existing mechanism rather than the new system. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
