Rafael Hui graft scandal highlights need for more government accountability in its dealings
Rafael Hui graft scandal highlights the need for more transparency and accountability in the government's dealings with the business sector
The Exco, as the top decision-making body, requires all its members to disclose their finances when they enter office and, thereafter, annually. The items they must declare are: paid directorships or jobs they hold and services they render in the course of such appointments; their land, property and company holdings, and membership of boards and committees. These listings are available online.
A second part to the declaration of interests is less transparent. Exco members have a “personal responsibility” to declare any potential conflict of interest beforehand. This is also true of the systems of many developed countries. But there the similarity ends.
The rules on such interests in Hong Kong go on to state: “Based on the interest declared, [the chief executive] assesses whether Exco members may have a potential or real conflict of interests in the item considered by Exco. [The chief executive] will decide whether members should participate in or withdraw from the discussion of that item.”
Given the wide range of matters handled by the Exco, the document tries to spell out different types of interests. Direct interests deemed to be “exclusionary” will require the chief executive to ask the member not to partake of any decision-making related to it. Then, there are “declaratory interests”, which appear to be concerned with a lesser degree of interest, allowing Exco members to stay in related discussions.
Contrast that with the British system of oversight.
Its ministerial code sets out a list of all relevant interests that might be thought to give rise to a conflict. The permanent secretary and the minister will then agree on the handling of such interests and any action taken will be passed to the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team and the independent adviser on ministers’ interest to confirm they are satisfied with the action taken. The final list is made available to the public after all these layers of checks have been satisfied.
In the United States, the oversight is arguably tighter.
The US president, vice-president, members of Congress and their staff, and the judiciary must file annual reports disclosing personal finances. Compliance and enforcement are overseen by the congressional ethics committee, ethics offices of government agencies and, in the case of the executive branch, the US Office of Government Ethics. Officials are limited in the amount of external income they may earn while in office.
Liabilities of more than US$10,000 to any one creditor must also be disclosed.
The financial disclosure forms for the US president, available online, are also very detailed. Apart from assets and liabilities in excess of US$10,000 from a single source, gifts, reimbursements and travel expenses of more than US$350 from one source must be disclosed. The form helpfully gives examples of gifts that must be revealed, such as a “leather briefcase from a personal friend” worth US$385. Another category requires the president to declare “compensation in excess of US$5,000 paid by one source”.
The British and US systems impose far more onerous disclosure requirements, multiple layers of oversight and a high degree of independence in such oversight, well before any whiff of misconduct or corruption is allowed to creep in. Even so, the systems are not above being breached, as the 2009 scandal of British MPs falsely declaring their expenses shows.
Hong Kong has some way to go in tightening its checks. Joseph Wong Wing-ping, a former minister overseeing the civil service, feels that, for example, its interest declaration and integrity checking systems should be made “more complete” and “more stringent”.
In particular, Wong, who worked alongside Hui in the mid-2000s, said the former chief secretary’s borrowing could have been detected if liabilities required mandatory disclosure.
“One’s personal situation could make him or her a target of exploitation,” he said. “If you owe a lot of debt but you enter government with a lot of power, exceeding your salary … this is a big problem.”
