As Legco defeats motion to treat chief executive same as other officials, Carrie Lam says pan-dems playing politics before November 22 polls
TONY CHEUNGtony.cheung@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 12 November, 2015, 12:01am
UPDATED : Thursday, 12 November, 2015, 5:34am
The defeated amendment sought to subject the chief executive to all provisions of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. Photo: Sam Tsang
The Legislative Council yesterday voted down a motion calling to amend the anti-bribery law to make it a criminal offence for the chief executive to solicit or accept any advantage without the permission of a statutory independent committee.
Shortly before the vote, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor suggested that the amendment could not be done because it involved constitutional issues and might "not fit the chief executive's constitutional role" for him to be required to seek permission before accepting an advantage.
She also accused the Democratic Party of tabling the motion "to attack the chief executive as part of the party's election campaign" for the district council poll on November 22.
"I believe residents can see this clearly and vote for pragmatic councillors who recognise what is right and criticise what is wrong," she said.
The motion was tabled by Democrat Helena Wong Pik-wan, who said the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance should be amended as soon as possible as three years had passed since a committee led by former chief justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang recommended that it be a criminal offence if the chief executive solicited or accepted any advantage without a statutory independent committee's permission.
At present, at least two sections of the ordinance did not cover the chief executive.
Li's committee formed after then chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was accused of receiving favours from his tycoon friends, and Leung Chun-ying, then chief executive-designate, pledged to implement the recommendations as soon as possible. Tsang was charged last month with two counts of misconduct in public office for failing to declare some of his interests when he was chief executive.
People Power lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen said that since Leung and Lam's roles were similar, Leung should be covered by the anti-graft law like Lam was.
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Lam disagreed. "I am not similar to the chief executive … I am just the chief secretary for the Hong Kong government, but Leung is the chief executive of the Hong Kong special administration region."
Last year, Leung was accused of corruption over a HK$50 million payment from an engineering firm in 2011 as part of a deal to take over his old company.
Countering a query whether the law was not amended because Leung feared being investigated, Lam said this was not so.
The Liberal Party was the only pro-establishment group that voted for Wong's motion.
Alluding to top mainland officials, Liberal Party lawmaker James Tien Pei-chun said: "No matter how transcendent or unique the chief executive is, he must not be above the likes of Zhou Yongkang and Ling Jihua."
In June, former security tsar Zhou was sentenced to life in jail for bribery and abuse of power. A month later, it was announced that former presidential aide Ling would be criminally prosecuted on corruption charges.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1877982/youre-playing-politics-hong-kong-chief-secretary-tells-pan
