Daniel Heung

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Daniel Heung (香灼璣) (born December 1943) was a Chairman of the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education of Hong Kong. He is an architect and formerly a committee member of the Town Planning Board. He is a cousin of Chief Executive Donald Tsang.

Heung was awarded a Silver Bauhinia Star by Donald Tsang in 2005.

[edit] Scandal

On August 7, Heung was the centre of a scandal when the Oriental Daily News broke the story that he had transformed a warehouse site in Shatin which he rented from the government in 1983 into a private residence using his professional knowledge[1] . It was estimated that rent would have cost about HK$840,000 a year as residential property instead of the annual lease payments of HK$200,000 a year over 16 years of his tenancy[2].

According to a briefing note for a Legislative Council meeting, officials had inspected the site more than twelve times since 1984. There had been eight land-use breaches, verbal and written warnings were issued. After each warning, Heung modified the site sufficiently to escape further censure until the next inspection.[3]His cousin, the Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, was also subject to questions about his role, as Tsang was the District Officer of Shatin at the time the lease was granted.[4] Tsang himself admitted having once visited, but the Chief Executive's Office denied any impropriety, stating that Tsang took no notice of the land lease issue when he visited his cousin's house in the late 1980s[5].

Heung claimed that he had moved away from that house in 1999, but in early August 2006, a private garden, a car park and a big house could still be found. [6] Afterwards, Heung resigned from the chairman of the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education but initially refused to give an apology. [7].

On August 25, more than two weeks after the scandal broke, Heung apologised in a statement[8], saying

"After reflecting on the developments of the past two weeks, I can fully appreciate that the public has very high expectations regarding the standards of behavior of the chairman of the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education, I would like to sincerely apologize to the public for not fulfilling their high expectations.

[edit] References

  1. ^ CE urged to respond to Heung home controversy RTHK, August 20, 2006
  2. ^ Kwoh, Leslie (August 18, 2006). Heung told to get house in order. Hong Kong Standard. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
  3. ^ Jonathan Cheng, Land cons under the spotlight, ''The Standard, September 19, 2006
  4. ^ Jonathan Cheng, Tsang role in land scandal queried, The Standard, September 21, 2006
  5. ^ Cheng, Jonathan (August 17, 2006). Audit Commission steps in. Hong Kong Standard. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
  6. ^ Yahoo! NewsAccessed 25 August 2006
  7. ^ Yahoo! NewsAccessed 25 August 2006
  8. ^ Heung says sorry for failing `high expectations'. Hong Kong Standard (August 26, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
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