Leung denies new allegations involving conflict of interest

Chief Executive candidate Leung Chun-ying, who also is the former council chairman of the City University (CityU), has denied influencing the choice of tenders for a construction contract for the college's extension project.

The new allegations were published by EastWeek on Tuesday. The magazine and its sister newspaper Sing Tao Daily are owned by Charles Ho Tsu-kwok, an open supporter of Leung's rival, Henry Tang Ying-yen.

Leung was CityU's council chairman before he stepped down last October to prepare for the election campaign. Another person's name that has emerged with the allegations is Chan Ka-kui, a former non-executive director of Hsin Chong Construction Group, one of Hong Kong's leading builders, and now a member of Leung's campaign team.

Chan is also a current CityU councillor who chairs the campus' development supervisory group. The report stated Chan's appointment as a council member in May 2009 was based on Leung's recommendation. The office of the candidate has verified the claim.

The report questioned how Hsin Chong was awarded a construction contract in July 2010 to build a new academic building in Kowloon Tong. Given that Hsin Chong had hired Leung's DTZ as an evaluator in September 2011, Eastweek said the case appeared to involve an exchange of benefits between Leung and Chan.

CityU pointed out that a tender committee was directly responsible for the project and that neither Leung nor Chan had any part in that committee. Chan's campus development supervisory group is responsible for monitoring progress of various expansion projects, but CityU stated that Chan had declared his ties with Hsin Chong and absented himself from any discussion related to the project.

Leung said he had no idea about DTZ's business relationship with Hsin Chong. The only available clue on the Internet concerning that aspect of the allegation was a circular released by Hsin Chong in September, 2011. The circular showed DTZ, Debenham Tie Leung Limited, had acted as an independent property valuler in Hsin Chong's acquisition of two lots on the mainland at a cost of about HK$3.3 billion.

The deal was widely reported since allegations of overpricing were leveled at the time, and the property vender was a company controlled in part by Wilfred Wong Ying-wai, executive deputy chairman of Hsin Chong.

Wilfred Wong is also the chairman of the council and court of the Baptist University, which also awarded a construction contract to Hsin Chong for the development of two new academic buildings. The building firm also had previously been awarded contracts by Lingnan University and the Chinese University.

The campaign trail went relatively quiet on Tuesday. CY Leung denied starting any smear campaigns against his rivals on his part. He said the media should know very well that the negative materials were not leaked by his campaign staff. He said he will insist on competing on policy platforms and ideas through an open and fair process.

Henry Tang continued to remain absent from the campaign on Tuesday. He did publish a blog entry titled "risk", in which he stated that politicians often make risky statements because they are opinionated.

The blog continued that anyone holding views counter to these opinionated politicians would be defeated as if he was the enemy.

kahon@chinadailyhk.com

China Daily

(HK Edition 02/29/2012 page1)