Rafael Hui failed to declare interest, trial told

When the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority voted to renew its lease at Sun Hung Kai Properties development One IFC, Rafael Hui Si-yan, at the time the authority's managing director, made no declaration of interest, the Court of First Instance was told yesterday.

Former authority chairman Charles Lee Yeh-kwong was testifying in the top-level corruption trial of Hui - the former chief secretary - and SHKP's co-chairmen, Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen.

The court heard earlier that Hui became a consultant to SHKP in March 2004. Lee, a solicitor and former Executive Councillor, said that in May 2003, the authority's board was concerned about whether it should continue to rent its One IFC offices after the tenancy agreement expired in March 2004.

The authority's consultant, First Pacific Davies Savills, advised it not to buy its own property as the market was plummeting as a result of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak.

It said the board should renew its existing tenancy or rent offices elsewhere. When the options were put to the vote, Lee said, Joseph Yam Chi-kwong was the only board member to declare a conflict of interest.

"He wrote on top of the [voting] paper, 'I abstain,'" Lee said.

At the time, Yam was chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which owned premises at Two IFC, another option being considered by the board, Lee said.