A Chief Programme Officer of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), charged by ICAC, appeared at Kowloon City Magistracy this (Friday) morning on two charges of misconduct in public office under the Common Law.

Richard Tsang Yip-fat, 50, today pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Mr Timothy Casewell.

The magistrate adjourned the case to September 2, 2002 for pre-trial review. The defendant was granted bail of $10,000 in cash and was ordered not to interfere with prosecution witnesses.

The charges alleged Tsang of having wilfully and intentionally culpably misconducted himself in the course of or in relation to his public office by:

- approving a salary increase for two RTHK employees without complying with the required procedures for processing such an increase;

- instructing his subordinates to arrange for the salary increases to be falsely processed as a payment to freelance workers in the name of the two employees' relatives; and

- causing payments to be made to the said relatives by signing the relevant forms used by RTHK for payments of freelance workers.

The alleged offences took place between March 1999 and December 2000.

The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Winnie Ho, assisted by ICAC officer Andrew Lo.