New Macau raises transparency concerns

The New Macau Association (ANM) held a press conference yesterday calling for transparency over public spending and attaining public access to the city’s financial activity reports, following the aftermath of the Macau Foundation’s controversial RMB100 million donation to Guangdong’s Jinan University.
According to ANM president Scott Chiang, the MSAR’s financial reports are just a “glimpse of the whole truth.” He argued that the public should be consulted on financial proposals to decide whether the allocated funds are used “properly.”
“All we see is a very slim slice of the whole process. Just a number and where it goes to. We don’t know how it was used and how well it actually benefited the cause. We are not satisfied by that,” Chiang argued.
The association filed a complaint to the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) in 2012 concerning the government’s alleged omission regarding a law on “Regulation on the Right of Association,” which mandates that “associations receiving public funds in an amount greater than the amount announced by the Chief Executive, shall publish their account books.”
However, ANM complained that since the transfer of sovereignty in 1999, the Chief Executive has never announced such amounts, freeing the associations from the legal obligations to make their financial situations public.
Following New Macau’s complaint, CCAC published an investigation report stating that “there is an urgent need to review the whole system,” yet the “opaque practices” of the Macau Foundation remains unchanged and there is no sign of reform despite pledges by the CCAC, according to the association.
“People have to know they [beneficiaries] are doing justice to the funds,” said Chiang. “We need to have access to proposal activity reports.”
Chiang also stressed that a large-scale public protest to demonstrate their objection to the RMB100 million donation to Jinan University had gone ignored by the authorities, who “remained silent.”
He also revealed that Wu Zhiliang, the president of Administrative Committee of the Macau Foundation, turned down ANM’s request for a meeting.
Meanwhile, the association has launched a public consultation to reform the Macau Foundation, and aims to provide a platform for the collection and deliberation of different proposals from civil society.
ANM added that these proposals would be put to a vote at the end of the consultation.
“Contrary to the past model, we are not going to be an opinion leader. We want the citizens to propose questions,” said the vice president of the association Jason Chao. Staff reporter