Drug expert quits college job to ease conflict-of-interest worries

Professor Daniel Shek Tan-lei, the city's leading academic on youth drug issues, is stepping down as the acting school supervisor of Christian Zheng Sheng College and as a member of its board of directors this month, after concern over potential conflicts of interest.

Shek, who is also the chairman of the Action Committee Against Narcotics, a drug advisory body, said it was a move to boost corporate governance at the private school, which offers rehabilitation services for teenage drug addicts.

The Lantau-based college's sponsor, the Christian Zheng Sheng Association, came under investigation from the Independent Commission Against Corruption in August.

'Board members should rotate once in a while and the school board should take in new members from time to time to strengthen the school's corporate governance,' Shek said. 'My departure can also be seen as a move to dismiss all potential concern, questioning or fear about conflicts of interest.'

The Security Bureau said recently Shek had always declared his interest at relevant meetings, and abstained from all discussions of items involving funding applications from the Christian Zheng Sheng Association during his term at the advisory body.

Another member of the college's board of directors, Dr Chui Hong-sheung, president of Hang Seng School of Commerce, will also step down at the end of this year. Chui has been a member of the board since 1998, advising on education issues.