Sonia Chan recommended relative to MP

Sonia Chan

Former prosecutor general, Ho Chio Meng, who is currently standing trial on accusations of corruption, has alleged that the current Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, as well as her predecessor, Florinda Chan, had recommended he hire relatives.

Ho, who spent much of the second session of his trial on Monday defending the hiring of family members, claimed that he was not alone in using his influence to attain benefits for himself and family members. The former prosecutor had told the Court of Final Appeal (TUI) that he had not engaged in nepotism and that the hiring of relatives was due to the small population of the MSAR.

According to Ho, Sonia Chan had contacted the former prosecutor ‘recommending’ that he hire one of her relatives. It has been confirmed that the relative was hired.

The accusation triggered a response from the Office for the Secretary for Administration and Justice, which published a statement on the matter. “Eight years ago, Dr Sonia Chan recommended a relative work in the Public Prosecutions Office (MP). During the process, she did not pressure him [Ho] to hire that person, she did not even have the chance to do so,” the office wrote, as at the time she was working at the Office for Personal Data Protection.

The revelation brought to the TUI by Ho is seen as “very grave,” by lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho. “I have been saying for years that there are problems with the top secretaries abusing their positions and violating ethics. I hope that [Ho] can reveal more cases about top officials,” he told the Times yesterday.

Coutinho said that a central hiring committee for the civil service had been established precisely to combat nepotism.

“I am surprised that for the last 15 years, no public commission like the CCAC investigated and detected these problems with the MP,” said Coutinho.

“The CCAC has shown that it avoids [investigating] top officials and only investigates the ‘small fish,’” he added. “The system that we have now did not detect anything abnormal.”

However, the seriousness of the accusation also means that the government ought to adequately investigate the case, the lawmaker told the Times yesterday. “Taking into consideration the accusations, the government needs to explain the facts,” he said, adding that an independent enquiry should be established.

The former prosecutor general was arrested on February 27. He is currently standing trial after being accused of engaging in more than 1,500 counts of various crimes, which include corruption, fraud, money laundering and nepotism.