Life of Guangzhou - Spat Over Leung Retirement Job Prompts Review

Procedures regulating retired civil servants taking private sector jobs will be reviewed to avoid a repeat of the row over former housing chief Leung Chin- man joining New World China Land, Secretary for the Civil Service Denise Yue Chung-yee said yesterday.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen is concerned at the public's reaction to the appointment, Yue said, but she insisted Leung's application had been handled according to procedures and that the Advisory Committee on Post-retirement Employment had been consulted.

She said the Civil Service Bureau will review the application mechanism taking into consideration public opinion and a report will be submitted to Tsang.

Leung, 62, retired in January last year and needed government approval to take up a job within three years of leaving office. His appointment as deputy managing director of New World China on August 1 raised questions as to whether Leung, as housing boss, was involved with the decision to sell the Hunghom Peninsula housing estate to New World for about half the original asking price in 2004.

The Democratic Party yesterday asked Tsang to suspend the approval given to Leung and set up an ad hoc committee in the new legislative year to investigate the matter.

The party also said it will assist its members in seeking a judicial review against the decision.

The League of Social Democrats and 30 members of the public complained to the Independent Commission Against Corruption's office in Yau Ma Tei yesterday. They urged the ICAC to investigate if there was any transfer of benefits to either side.

Senior Non-Expatriate Officers Association chairman Poon Wai-ming did not agree that the mechanism was flawed. Approvals had clear criteria, he said, and the controversy arose from a lack of strict enforcement of them.

"Leung's application would not have been approved so easily if the criteria had been strictly enforced," Poon said. He rejected the idea of banning civil servants from taking relevant private sector jobs after retirement.

(By Nickkita Lau)

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