Exclusive | University of Hong Kong management ‘misled’ donor over 10 million yuan, internal report claims
- Report leaked in email says management guilty of ‘egregious failures’ over its handling of donation from mainland China-listed company
Management at Hong Kong’s top university misled a mainland Chinese donor that had given 8.5 million yuan (US$1.17 million) for scholarships, forcing the school to apologise and lose an additional instalment of the endowment, an internal report seen by the Post alleges.
The confidential information was contained in an email sent to more than 400 staff members at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on Friday and signed the “Whistleblowers”. They called for a group, set up by the government and already examining strained relations between university president Xiang Zhang and governing council chairwoman Priscilla Wong Pui-sze, to investigate the handling of the donation.
Zhang was accused of mismanagement in September last year in emails signed the same way and sent to members of the council. A panel set up by the body eventually issued a report clearing the president, but a chapter of that finding was leaked in the latest email.
It said HKU management was guilty of “egregious failures” over its handling of a 10 million yuan donation from the mainland-listed company, the largest the school had received from over the border.
Representatives of the donor, widely reported as the Ninestar Corporation, which makes printers, met Zhang and HKU chief of staff Isabella Wong in September 2021 to suggest the money be used for scholarships.
The gift comprised a first instalment of 8.5 million yuan, received by the university through a registered charitable organisation as an intermediary due to foreign-exchange controls on the mainland, and a second instalment of 1.5 million yuan.