A champion of rights

Colette Steckel talks to Amy Yung, recognised as ACCA’s achievement award winner in the UK’s recent Accountancy Age awards

Amy Yung’s reputation as a determined woman who isn’t afraid to lock horns with Hong Kong’s property elite has made her something of a celebrity in Discovery Bay - a low-rise, low pollution and car-free development on Lantau Island. A resident of Discovery Bay for 21 years, Amy has a pedigree in community service; she has worked with the church and was a Sunday school teacher for over a decade. But, on first impression, this gracious and softly-spoken woman seems an unlikely candidate to take on a powerful Hong Kong property development company in a modern-day David and Goliath battle.

Amy recalls that her accolade as a champion of owners’ rights in Discovery Bay began in 1997 when she was invited to join an owners’ committee that brought together property owners in Discovery Bay to discuss building management issues. As a finance professional, one of her tasks was to review the accounts prepared by the management company, which is a subsidiary of the developer.

When Amy reviewed the expenses, she recalls that she didn’t like what she saw. She cites one example: “When I looked at the accounts, I found out that the owners paid a substantial annual insurance charge, yet when I contacted the insurance company as part of the tendering process, I discovered that their charge was HK$800,000 per annum. The figure in the accounts was HK$2m. It didn’t make sense. Of course, I questioned the management company representatives at the committee meetings but they were reluctant to answer. I also sent letters to the board of directors of the management company and got no response. Eventually, I gave notice that I was going to visit their offices and expected to have the documents ready for review. It took me nine months to get to that point.”

Her niggling doubts about the annual insurance charges were well founded: the management company had charged a HK$1.2m administration fee, which Amy felt was unjustified. She challenged the board, which refunded the fee. To Amy and the owners’ committee, this was an important victory. “We have a small voice,” says Amy. “Our committee is not incorporated as a separate legal entity so it is impossible for owners to have the power to enter into contracts, to sue and be sued and to hire a new management company. The management company can charge whatever it wants. It’s difficult to question it and we certainly can’t fire it. It’s totally unfair.”

Amy’s dogged pursuit for answers to her queries on the alleged rogue management fees won her the respect and support of her fellow committee members, who appointed her chairman of the owners’ committee in 1998. Her skills as a spokeswoman for the rights of owners were put to the test once again that year when the management company announced that it would be reinstating a fee that Amy had contested. She argued that the management fee, although significantly less than the HK$1.2m originally charged, was still excessive. “At the committee meeting I read a statement in protest of the charge. And I filed a complaint with the Home Affairs Department,” recalls Amy.

She rues that her run-in with the management company may have put an end to her hopes of becoming re-elected the following year. She lost her seat by a mere two votes but she concedes that, although bitterly disappointed, her supporters suggested she put herself forward for election at the Islands District Council, one of 18 district councils in Hong Kong. She was elected in 2000. “This created an opportunity for me where I could represent the residents of Discovery Bay. I would also have a duty to represent the Government and spell out its policies, to make sure everything is legal and above board.

“The first thing I did on being elected was to send a petition to the Legislative Council outlining the problem of building management from my experiences in Discovery Bay.” That year, the Legislative Council Panel on Home Affairs created a subcommittee to review the Building Management Ordinance. Since then, the subcommittee has performed an extensive public consultation exercise on the BMO. Amy has been playing her part in representing residents’ rights through meetings and correspondence with the Legislative Council Panel on Home Affairs, as well as travelling throughout Hong Kong as an accounting ambassador for HKICPA, giving lectures and seminars to residents on preparing budgets and reading accounts.

She adds that she was delighted when a draft bill was issued in 2005 to facilitate building management through the formation of owners’ corporations as legal entities. “I’ve been following this for the past five years. The amendments will give owners’ committees a legal footing and it will also encourage residents to get involved in the management of buildings. There will be some balance of power between the developer, the management company and the small owners,” explains Amy. It sounds like a fait accompli, although Amy begs to differ. “These amendments will benefit residents in Hong Kong but more changes are needed. This is a long term process and I’m prepared to stick with it,” she announces.

Although continuing to press for more owners’ rights, Amy has also campaigned on community issues affecting residents. With its beautiful countryside and idyllic coastline, Discovery Bay was originally conceived as a leisure and recreational community for Hong Kong residents and tourists, but development plans have since gone awry. According to Amy, the low-rise community is being dwarfed by high-rise apartment blocks, which are counter to the Government’s promise to conserve the countryside of Lantau Island. She protested to the Hong Kong Ombudsman and the Audit Commission, both of which issued reports in 2004 that criticised the large-scale developments.

Amy’s efforts to preserve the natural beauty of Discovery Bay have been hard-fought. She has successfully thwarted attempts to build a large residential development in a conservation area and has also protested against the development of a casino and F3 racetrack. Recently, she raised concerns over the alleged use of toxic chemicals in the nightly firework displays at Hong Kong Disneyland. Disney received mixed reviews from the Hong Kong public when it opened in the summer and complaints over the pyrotechnics have been widespread in the press. “I support Hong Kong Disneyland,” counters Amy. “It’s good for the economy and brings a lot of tourism from Asia and the Mainland. But I do think that Disney has a social responsibility to reduce pollution.” Amy has proposed that Disney uses gunpowder-less, compressed-air technology to launch its fireworks, which would be quieter and better for the environment. She has also called for a halt to nightly displays when pollution is high. Disney has yet to be persuaded.

Fulfilment

Amy’s passion for environmental issues extends beyond the shores of Discovery Bay. She is involved with green groups in Hong Kong and is a representative on the consultative committee of the Central Pier Reclamation project, which aims to transform the Central Pier, on Hong Kong Island, into a recreation centre and transportation hub. “Being involved gives me a sort of fulfilment because I achieve something that is good not just for me but for the community,” says Amy. “And I can see that influences people around me. I have a lot of supporters, friends, mentors and consultants; people who are happy to share their experiences and teach me. I can’t get that elsewhere.”

She notes that she is fortunate she has the time, and the energy, to devote to the community. “When you work 12 or 13-hour days, you don’t have the time to get involved, but I’m lucky because I’m self employed. I have spare time.” Amy is a partner in Amy Yung & Co, a finance and consultancy practice on Hong Kong Island. She began her accounting career as an auditor with KPMG, moving onto head internal audit departments for listed companies in Hong Kong, including the Hong Kong Building Society and construction company Shui On Group. She has also worked as regional financial controller for Reuters and Telerate.

She founded her practice in 1994 and her team of four have built up a sizeable client base of small and medium sized businesses in Hong Kong. Over the past decade, Amy’s business has grown through word-of-mouth but Amy notes that, as a hands-on businesswoman who values relationships and integrity, she adopts a nurturing role within her firm.“I rather treat my business as a family,” she says, smiling broadly. “I don’t do this for the money. I do it to build friendships and gain confidence in the firm’s services, both of which are very important to me.”

With her hectic life as a finance professional and champion of residents’ rights in Discovery Bay, it takes some planning to squeeze in a social life, but Amy remarks that she still spares a few hours for more leisurely pursuits. She has a keen interest in watersports: she swims daily and currently competes with a local team of finance professionals in the celebrated Discovery Bay International Dragon Boat Championship, which she and her fellow dragon boaters won in 1997.

Another victory may well be on the cards, and not necessarily the aquatic kind. Although Amy says she has no political affiliation, she says she sees a future in politics, when the time is right. “I just want to wait for the opportunity rather than aggressively seek it out. If it comes along, I’ll take it,” she says. “I can see that Hong Kong needs people like me.”