Hong Kong leader’s secretary to take over scandal-hit logistics department

The private secretary of Hong Kong’s leader has been appointed to take over as the new head of the logistics department after it was embroiled in a water procurement scandal.

In an announcement of senior appointments on Tuesday, the government said Vicki Kwok Wong Wing-ki would take up the post of director of government logistics on October 27 to succeed Carlson Chan Ka-shun, who proceeded on pre-retirement leave last month.

Serving as the private secretary to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu since May last year, Kwok joined the administrative service in 1994 and rose through the ranks serving various bureaus and departments. She was deputy secretary for security from 2020 to 2022 and deputy secretary for culture, sports and tourism for another two years.

Chan was in the spotlight in August after the government was embroiled in a bottled water procurement scandal in which the logistics department awarded a three-year HK$52.9 million (US$6.8 million) contract to Xin Ding Xin Trade, which allegedly used fraudulent documents.

The company, which was chosen to supply bottled drinking water to some government offices, is suspected of scamming the department and breaching the Trade Descriptions Ordinance.

Chan later made a public apology with Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu, who oversees the department, ordering it to “take up the main responsibility”.