The government's failure to keep records on fung shui compensation payouts has come under fire from former archives officials who say it violates the administration's rules.
They say that the absence of proper fung shui compensation records also infringes the Code on Access to Information, which guarantees transparency and accountability.
The government's Records Management Manual, made mandatory in April 2009, states: 'Records should be created and collected to meet operational, policy, legal and financial purposes', and 'records should be identifiable, retrievable, accessible and available as needed'.
Former director of the Government Records Service, Simon Chu Fook-keung, now a member of the Archives Action Group, said: 'Under the guideline, bureaus and departments should have no excuse for not creating and keeping records of their official activities.'
Chu's criticism comes after four government departments failed to disclose how much they had spent on fung shui compensation works. The Sunday Morning Post earlier revealed at least HK$72 million of public money has been spent on fung shui compensation - a figure believed to be the tip of a very big iceberg.
The Lands Department said it does not have records of fung shui compensation spending, saying it only has figures for ex-gratia tun fu ritual payments.
