CO129-607-1 Enquiry into loss of public money 22-5-1948 - 26-10-1948 — Page 36

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All Mr. Au Yeung's references to statistical work may be taken with a catty of salt: the Statistical Section of the Office has never been much more than nominal. This is not to say that such statistical work as Mr. Au Yeung did was not good. I think he was the right man for it.

If it is true that Mr. Au Yeung, from the time of his row with Mr. Chung Yiu Kei, was not happy in charge of accounts, that never appeared. If Chung Tse Chuen, the missing man, was insubordinate, and was backed, as may well have been the case, by his friend, Chung Yiu Kei, Mr. Au Yeung never gave Mr. Wakefield or me the slightest smell of it. His minute of 26.9.47 (Appendix 4 of Committee's Report) in which he asks for transfer to statistical work exclusively, cannot be regarded as any intimation of what he now says was going on, because nobody could seriously have conceived of full-time allocation to so small a job as statistics of such an able man. Moreover, Mr. Wakefield, who saw Mr. Au Yeung and Mr. Chung Tse Chuen frequently, had the impression that they were "as thick as thieves". It was partly for this reason that we made in paragraph 10 on page 15 of our Report our suggestion that Au Yeung had shown "such a degree of irresponsibility as to suggest connivance at the fraud".

I am now prepared to believe, however, that Mr. Chung Yiu Kei, instead of helping Mr. Au Yeung, put him off, and tolerated or encouraged irregular behaviour by Mr. Au Yeung's subordinate, Mr. Chung Tse Chuen. Let me make it clear, as we did in our Report that I realise that these goings on were facilitated by the lack of due attention given to the accounts by me and Mr. Wakefield.

6.

Here ends the section by J. Barrow alone.

We feel bound to add the following further comments on the Committee's Report.

2(1)

Appendix 1, Auditor's queries: D.O.N.T. 's reply of 11.6.48 attached.

FINDINGS. (Page 6 of Committee's Report).

(c)

(F)

(H)

(D)

(F)

This is not quite true, as regards Mr. Wakefield, who checked the books about five times during this period, though he did not initial them. We also find it hard to believe that Mr. Au Yeung, who had very little else to do, did not check the Department's accounts during that period.

We consider that not only the Shroff at Yuen Long, but Mr. Au,Yeung also, who was present at Yuen Long on the 29th of April, should have kicked up a fuss about this lack of receipt.

As regards the reference herein, and elsewhere, to the practice whereby Mr. Chung Yiu Kei and Mr. Barrow each had a key to the safe in which the money was kept, it was not made clear that that safe had also to house a considerably quantity of files, and that we had to be prepared for occasions on which Mr. Barrow had to be away.

RECOMMENDATIONS

(Page 8 of Committee's Report)

This has been done, see the attached minute of 8.6.48 to Mr. Ashraf, the new Accountant.

Mr.

Chung Yiu Kei's key has been transferred to Mr. Wakefield. Regretted that in present circumstances of shortage of safes, two keys must be retained in the Department.