Officials ‘allowed to send staff on private errands’

Commerce minister's remark suggests former chief executive did no wrong in bid to meet popeGovernment officials are fully entitled to ask their taxpayer-funded staff members to arrange activities or run errands for them on a private basis, the commerce minister says.mini storageThis means former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, a devout Catholic, did nothing wrong if, as alleged, he asked staff at the Hong Kong economic and trade office in Brussels to help arrange a private audience with Pope Benedict in 2008.Civil servants at trade offices around the world mainly organised official events for visiting bureaucrats, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Greg So Kam-leung said, but they could also be asked to "assist appropriately" with "non-official activities"."Priority is given to official meetings," So said, and staff could help with other arrangements such as "private meetings" as long as these did not get in the way of official duties.He was responding after Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah called on the government to explain its role amid allegations of possible judicial interference under the Tsang administration.Last month, former Italian senator Sergio De Gregorio said that in 2008, he told Duncan Pescod, Hong Kong's then representative to Europe, he would help set up a private audience with the pope during Tsang's official visit.De Gregorio, then a close associate of Italy's former prime minister S儲存lvio Berlusconi, asked Pescod in return to stop evidence seized by Hong Kong from reaching Italian prosecutors.The evidence, which was crucial to a corruption and money-laundering case linked to Berlusconi, was transferred to Italy only in August, after seven years of legal proceedings.Tong said So's response sidestepped the real issue, which was about whether Tsang was guilty while in public office of misconduct and of perverting the course of justice. "If the former chief executive did give an undertaking to a foreign senator, was that misconduct? If it was, will the government conduct an investigation?" he asked So.Tong likened it to the case of former graft-buster chief Timothy Tong Hin-ming, who spent public funds on gifts like HK$815 of beef brisket and fish balls.The lawmaker also said he was "astonished" to see the commerce minister handling his query, saying the secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs or the chief secretary were the appropriate officials to respond.Earlier this month, the Department of Justice said it was informed of De Gregorio's actions in an e-mail Pescod wrote to justice officials in October 2007. It advised Pescod to tell De Gregorio that the courts were dealing with the case.So repeated the department's stance, saying the judicial process had "never been compromised" nor were any "irrelevant considerations taken into account" during the case. Tsang had no comment on the matter.迷你倉