The majority of Hong Kong people agree that the Independent Commission Against Corruption should investigate Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s HK$50 million secret payment from Australian corporation UGL, a survey has showed.
The Democratic Party surveyed 815 people between October 13 and 27, to ask their opinion about expanding the power of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. Currently, sections 3 and 8 of the ordinance, on offering or taking bribes in relation to the government, do not apply to the Chief Executive.
In the survey, 88 percent said they agree that the chief executive should also be regulated under the ordinance, 7 percent said they do not agree.
In another question, 77 percent said they agree Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was being unreasonable for not implementing a suggestion made by an independent committee led by former Chief Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang in 2012. Li said that the ordinance should also cover corruption in relation to the Chief Executive. Around 13 percent did not agree.
Also in the survey, 67 percent did not agree with the comment by China Liaison Office Director Zhang Xiaoming that the Chief Executive has a transcendent status over all branches of government.
Law amendment proposed
Democratic Party lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan told Apple Daily that the survey showed that the majority of Hong Kong people think the Chief Executive should be monitored for corruption by law.
She put forward a motion to the Legislative Council on Wednesday to urge the government to expeditiously submit to the Council an amendment bill on the ordinance to plug the loopholes in the law. This would ensure that the Chief Executive would not be above the law which applies to politically appointed officials and civil servants, she added.
However, DAB Party lawmaker Tam Yiu-chung proposed amendments to the motion, removing the part that the government should submit an amendment bill and replacing it with “and to handle the aforesaid issue in compliance with the constitutional requirements under the Basic Law.”
Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Wong Kwok-kin told the newspaper that the motion involves changes to the Chief Executive’s constitutional status in the Basic Law and that he has not decided whether to support the motion. However, he said he will support Tam’s amendments.
