New Civil Service Chief Quizzed Over Police Scandals

Patrick Nip faced a grilling on Monday during his first appearance at a public service panel meeting as Civil Service Secretary, with lawmakers demanding answers on issues ranging from how he plans to deal with police accused of breaking the law, to ways of improving civil servants' understanding of the motherland.

An item on the agenda about non-Chinese civil servants provided the pan-dems with a chance to bring up recent allegations made against senior police officers.

As Nip was speaking in Legco, a team of officials from the Lands Department were inspecting the Clearwater Bay home of assistant police commissioner Rupert Dover, who has been in the headlines over alleged breaches of the law involving two village houses he is linked to.

With property-related allegations also being made against other senior police in recent days, Civic Party legislator Kwok Ka-ki said he believed some non-Chinese officers have been breaking the law.

Kwok asked Nip whether his bureau will look into the allegations, and discipline officers who have committed wrongdoing.

"Of course we would handle each and every complaint in a very serious and impartial manner," the secretary said.

Nip, who until last month was the city's Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Secretary, said allegations are dealt with according to established mechanisms.

"Depending on the circumstances and the details of the cases, some are being handled by departments and bureaus, some may be handled by the Civil Service Bureau."

At the panel meeting, pro-establishment legislators urged Nip to provide civil servants with more training on the Basic Law and China's constitution.

The lawmakers, including the DAB's Ann Chiang and Elizabeth Quat, and Luk Chung-hung from the Federation of Trade Unions, said civil servants haven't received enough national education and their knowledge of the Basic Law and the mainland is inadequate.

Nip agreed that such training is important and said more trips to the mainland will be arranged for civil servants.