ICAC chiefs should be open to investigation, says Carrie Lam
As former anti-graft boss Timothy Tong stays silent over meals and gifts, chief secretary stresses all ICAC officers are bound by civil service rules
Any ICAC officer who fails to strictly comply with civil service rules should face investigation, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said yesterday, amid a meals and gifts scandal engulfing the anti-graft agency.
Apparently targeting former commissioner Timothy Tong Hin-ming for the first time, Lam said that while the Independent Commission Against Corruption was independent of the government, its officers were bound by the rules on civil servants, which included the giving of gifts.
"If some individuals have done something contrary to these rules, there should be investigations into them," she said without naming anyone.
Lam also said the ICAC's system of regulating the giving of gifts by its officials may need to be reviewed. "Every system has room for improvement as public demands and social conditions change … every system has to be reviewed after a time," she said.
Tong spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public purse on gifts and lavish meals for mainland officials when he headed the ICAC from 2007 to 2012.
The convenor of the Executive Council, Lam Woon-kwong, said it was vital that ICAC commissioners set a good example, and he called on Tong - who has so far remained silent - to explain.
"The ICAC is the organisation that bears the cornerstone of Hong Kong's core value," Lam said. "The commissioner is not just the head of any organisation. [He] has a duty to uphold Hong Kong's corruption-free image."
