Mandy Tam Heung-man (Traditional Chinese: 譚香文; born 8 June 1957) is a Hong Kong politician, tax advisor and newspaper columnist who is currently a member of the Wong Tai Sin District Council, representing Lung Sing.
Tam has been embroiled in two separate controversies, one with the HKICPA, a professional body whose members are electors of the accountancy functional constituency of the LegCo; the second one was a result of what was perceived to be a politically motivated charge of voting corruption.
In October 2010, upon a complaint lodged by Chow Ka-leung a, politician from a rival political party, Tam was charged by the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) with engaging in corrupt conduct in the 2008 Legislative Council elections for "[offering] an advantage, namely service in the form of a free seminar to other persons as an inducement for them to vote for her at the election."
Tam said the prosecution was politically motivated and maintained that the three free seminars she organized for professional accountants did not constitute a voting inducement.
This distinction was further upheld when the case was heard on appeal in April 2012, with the judge Hon Lam J upholding the acquittal, in view of the point of law that: "It is not enough for an advantage to be offered.
[1][2][3] Tam ran in the "patriots-only" 2021 Legislative Council election in the newly created Kowloon Central geographic constituency.
In mid-September 2006, during a period of heated debate on the Hong Kong Government's plan to introduce a GST (General Sales Tax), Tam released the interim results of a survey on public attitudes towards the introduction of the GST, independently conducted by the East Asia Work Based Learning Centre of Middlesex University.
In a report of the survey findings, Tam concluded that the majority of respondents opposed a GST, and further suggested that the government should look into other means to broaden its tax base.