No Censure Motion For Holden Chow In UGL Case

A Legco investigation has decided against censuring DAB lawmaker Holden Chow over his secret talks with former Chief Executive CY Leung in relation to a probe against the then-Hong Kong leader.

Chow was the deputy of a committee looking into Leung's acceptance of $50 million from engineering company UGL.

But in 2017, he was found to have allowed Leung to change his own proposal setting out the scope of the probe.

The chair of the committee investigating Chow, Abraham Shek, said it's not against Legco rules for Chow to adopt Leung's views, or that of any subject being investigated.

Shek said the committee is of the view that Chow should have the right to consult the views of Leung and others to formulate his own views about the scope of the investigation.

The committee also said it's plausible that Chow "genuinely believed" his views were the same as Leung's, and he was ready to adopt Leung's changes as his own.

When delivering his report to the council on Wednesday, Shek said: "While Mr Chow’s behaviour might have impacted the public perception of members, his behaviours are not sufficiently grave as to amount to contempt of the functions and powers of Legco, nor to bring shame on Legco, and his behaviour are not of such gravity as to undermine the public confidence in Legco and its members as a whole."

However, two pro-democracy councillors of the committee – Dennis Kwok and James To – submitted a minority report, saying that Chow had misled Legco in making fake statements about his secret talks with the former Chief Executive.