MR CHAN CHUN-YING (in Cantonese):
President, I would first like to declare that I am a member of the Corruption Prevention Advisory Committee of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (“ICAC”).
I notice that there are two facts concerning the motion moved by Mr LAM Cheuk-ting. Firstly, as pointed out by Chief Secretary Carrie LAM earlier, in the verbal response given by ICAC Commissioner Simon PEH when Members-elect of the Council visited ICAC on 23 September 2016 and also in his subsequent written reply dated 4 October 2016 to all Members of the Council, a very detailed account has already been given of the cancellation of the acting appointment of Ms Rebecca LI as Head of Operations, and the explanation has also been widely circulated and extensively covered by local media.
Secondly, since the responses mentioned above were publicized, the person involved has made no refutation and/or allegation in respect of the statement of facts given by the ICAC Commissioner. Moreover, following the incident concerning Ms Rebecca LI, I attended in person an internal committee meeting of ICAC. During the committee meeting, it came to my attention that colleagues in ICAC were, as always, discharging their duties professionally and maintaining very high efficiency and high quality services. Hence, I do not consider it necessary for us to invoke the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance now to inquire into the matter.
In view of my duties as a committee member in ICAC, I have decided not to participate in the voting on the motion in order to avoid any possible conflict of interests.
President, I so submit.