Alman Chan Siu-cheuk, principal of Christian Zheng Sheng College, attends a press conference yesterday to clarify the investment scandal recently reported by a local magazine. Edmond Tang

HONG KONG: The management of the Christian Zheng Sheng Association says money it invested on the mainland came from donations, not students' tuition and boarding fees of its college.

The association's investments came under the spotlight after Next Magazine unveiled last week that the registered address of a company that the group runs in Fujian is an entertainment complex that includes a nightclub.

Lam Hay-sing, the association's chief executive officer, said he borrowed a friend's address, where a business operates, for convenience of registration of a company set up by the group in 2007.

He admitted that its association was not cautious in handling the issue but stressed that the office of the company is located at a hotel where the firm owns more than 10 rooms since last year.

The association had investments worth about HK$18 million on the mainland in 2007, said Alman Chan Siu-cheuk, the association's chief operation officer and principal of the Christian Zheng Sheng College.

He said the funds for the investments came from donations. Chan said the association had a surplus of about HK$2 million in 2007 while the private college has run a deficit.

He said it had received about HK$83 million from students' tuition and boarding fees from 1998 to last year but had spent some HK$84 million.

But Chan could not provide the association's 2007 and last year's financial reports yesterday. The college now has about 130 students. More than 90 percent of them live on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), Chan said.

Lam admitted the association pocketed one-off welfare payment bonuses supposed to be for college students under the CSSA scheme.

He said students living on welfare pay the association about HK$3,000 a month for their boarding and meal expenses, several hundred dollars less than what they should pay a month.

"The students owe me the money," he said. "It is reasonable (to take their bonuses). Students can discuss it with me if they find it unreasonable."

The government paid an extra month standard payment to CSSA recipients on May 30 in 2007, June 16 and September 5 last year as well as August 5 this year.

A spokesman for the Social Welfare Department said the extra payments are designated for welfare recipients and a letter had been sent to the association to ask for explanations on the issue, but it had yet to receive a reply.

The spokesman also said the college students under the CSSA scheme receive up to HK$10,465 a month, including a standard payment of about HK$2,200, a rent allowance of HK$1,265 and a subsidy of tuition fees of about HK$7,000 a month.

On the Zheng Sheng school's website, it said students have to pay HK$10,665 a month for their tuition fees and living expenses.

Priscilla Ho, a social worker at the Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention, which runs two drug rehabilitation hostels, said it is common in the industry to charge each patient about HK$4,000 a month for his or her meal and boarding expenses.

Lam also clarified that the association's board members are not paid, except for himself and Chan, as they also serve as staff members at the association.

Chan declined to guess if the recent scandal will affect the school's bid to move to Mui Wo.

(HK Edition 08/20/2009 page1)