In response to an article by Apple Daily on February 21 entitled "Vice-Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference would not be granted immunity from prosecution", the Chief Executive (CE), Mr C Y Leung, today (February 22) said that the report is unfounded and responded with the following statement:

1. I formally resigned from the position of DTZ director on November 24, 2011. I was not a director of DTZ when I signed the non-compete and non-poach agreement with UGL in early December 2011.

2. The management of DTZ was fully aware of the above-mentioned non-poach and non-compete agreement between UGL and me. The Australian media organisation which first published the story in 2014 also confirmed in its follow-up reports on and after October 15 of the same year that all parties in the acquisition, including the then Chairman of DTZ Tim Melville-Ross, had full knowledge of the matter.

3. I was never a director of UGL.

4. I was never involved in any business decisions made between MTR Corporation Limited and UGL.

5. As for matters regarding declaration, the Chief Secretary for Administration, on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, has clearly and openly clarified the issue at the Legislative Council (LegCo) at least four times in 2014. To quote one of these statements made at LegCo on October 29, 2014, as an example, "the agreement and payments concerned arose from Mr Leung's resignation from DTZ, not any future service to be provided by him. Under the current system of declaration of interests by members of the Executive Council (ExCo), there is no requirement for Mr Leung to declare the said resignation agreement. Moreover, both Mr Leung's resignation from DTZ and conclusion of the agreement with UGL took place before he was elected as the CE, and at the material time, he had already resigned from ExCo."

     The above unfounded article which claims that I might have committed offences under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and of misconduct in public office has seriously tarnished my reputation. I reserve all rights to take further actions.

Ends/Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Issued at HKT 18:05

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