Declaration of interest row after Lands Department official bought 13 plots
Lands Department to review procedures after official buys 13 plots in area she oversees and wins right to build homes from board she sits on
The Lands Department will review its declaration-of-interest procedures after it was revealed a senior official overseeing Yuen Long had bought 13 plots of land in the district and planned to build four houses there.
Lands assistant director Anita Lam Ka-fun and her surveyor husband Thomas Tang Chiu-man bought the 8,274 square metres of agricultural land in Tsing Tam village - just outside the boundary of the area being studied for the planned Kam Tin new town - in Yuen Long for HK$18.8 million in July 2012, land registry records showed.
In May this year, the couple applied for the Town Planning Board's approval to build four houses on two of the 13 plots.
The board's Rural and New Town Planning Committee, of which Lam is an official member and planning director Ling Kar-kan is chairman, approved the application on July 25.
Lam had declared her interests and was excused from the discussion during the meeting.
But committee member David Lui Yin-tat said the application should be vetted by a third party because Lam's colleagues' involvement in the issue could be perceived as unfair.
