The head of the Irish media regulator was described as a “conspirator” during a Hong Kong parliamentary probe – but claims he blew the whistle on “political interference” in a controversial €20 million contract award.
Coimisiún na Meán executive chairperson Jeremy Godfrey, formerly Hong Kong’s devolved government chief information officer, changed his score in a tendering process and overruled colleagues to give a share of the contract to a pro-Beijing group.
More than a year later he left his post early, citing “personal reasons” – but not before asking his boss for “coaching about government culture” and apologising for his lack of “self control”.
“There was political interference in the process of implementing this programme. This eventually led to my resignation as I could not in good faith stand over the outcome,” he told The Ditch.
‘Godfrey asked Tse to become his coach’
Jeremy Godfrey chaired a Hong Kong government evaluation panel in 2010 that scored several bidders for an internet programme that would deliver subsidised broadband and computers to children in low-income families.
The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), a statutory federation of welfare organisations, was the highest scorer after the evaluation panel’s first round of scoring.
Godfrey changed his original scores so that the runner-up – a consortium led by the pro-Beijing Internet Professional Association (iProA) – finished just above the HKCSS.
IproA is a non-profit trade body co-founded by Elizabeth Quat, a central committee member of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.
The panel’s scoring concluded in summer 2010 with the HKCSS the recommended bidder by two to one and Godfrey the only panellist favouring iProA.
Legislator Cyd Ho, who advocates for increased independence from Beijing, told Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, known as LegCo, in July 2011 that the evaluation report didn’t explain Godfrey’s score revision.
“A member of the evaluation panel really changed his scores: Mr Godfrey subsequently changed his scores,” Ho told LegCo. “Why did he change the scores?... I could not find the answers in the evaluation report,” said Ho.
Godfrey went on to propose that both organisations jointly implement the programme, an arrangement his deputy, Joey Lam, later told LegCo had no support in Godfrey’s office.
Despite this Godfrey emailed his boss, Hong Kong permanent secretary Elizabeth Tse, on 18 August, 2010 to formally propose the dual approach.
The contract was eventually split geographically. Though he later claimed he disagreed with this approach and that it led to his resignation as a whistleblower, in 2010 and with his contract up for renewal, he was sending conciliatory emails to his superior.
He emailed Tse on 24 December, 2010 – four months after she had signed off on his preferred approach.
“I have communicated with you in ways that show a lack of respect for your office and your experience. I am very sorry that I have not been more understanding of your perspective and have not had more self control,” he said.
He admitted in the same email that he tended to “magnify the importance of even the smallest signals – an unreturned phone call or an instruction given directly to one of my deputies – and to interpret them as evidence of an agenda to block my plans”.
Godfrey asked Tse to become his coach.
“I would like to benefit from your coaching about government culture and procedures,” he wrote. “I would benefit from more regular private meetings with you as a line manager and coach perhaps monthly – as well as earlier interaction on particular issues,” he said.
Godfrey left his post in February 2011, two months early, because of “personal reasons.”
Three months later he wrote to LegCo alleging Tse and Hong Kong’s then-financial secretary John Tsang had pressured him to steer the contract to the iProA outfit.
Tsang later told LegCo that Godfrey’s allegations were “ridiculous”.
‘Cannot absolve himself of the blame either’
Hong Kong legislators on both sides of the political divide criticised him.
Pro-Beijing legislators attacked his allegations of political interference while others criticised his procedural conduct and questioned his complicity.
Senior counsel Ronny Tong told LegCo in July 2011 that Godfrey “cannot absolve himself of the blame either, for he was a conspirator”.
A LegCo motion to establish a committee to investigate the affair was defeated.
Hong Kong police eventually opened an investigation into the iProA in 2013, and the government terminated eInclusion’s contract, citing “untruthful information about its operations.”
Godfrey told The Ditch he blew the whistle on political interference.
“When I was government chief information officer in Hong Kong over 15 years ago, I proposed a programme to support children from low-income families in gaining access to the Internet to support their educational needs.
“As I set out in a submission to the Hong Kong Legislative Council at the time, there was political interference in the process of implementing this programme. This eventually led to my resignation as I could not in good faith stand over the outcome, and to my blowing the whistle on the political interference,” he said.
