2014 Report | CCAC receives fewer graft complaints

The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) received a total of 865 claims last year, showing a 17 percent decline in criminal cases but also a 6 percent increase in administrative appeals compared with the previous year.
The Commission stressed in its annual report, released yesterday, that its work fighting corruption and administrative violations relies on citizens’ support and participation – an assertion that is reflected in last year’s figures, which state that over 96 percent of the claims were reported by citizens.
However, the total number of claims dropped by 31 and halted the upward trend that has prevailed over recent years. Regarding this number, the CCAC said that it “will focus attention and carefully review the reasons behind this change in number, thence targeting deployment in this year’s work plan.”
According to the report, cases of corruption investigated last year still showed a predominance of offenses by civil servants. A large proportion of those offenses were of document forgery, especially falsification of working records.
Compared with the past several years, the number of criminal claims received by CCAC dropped significantly to 298 last year. The authority followed that up with 492 completed investigations, including cases held over from 2013.
Abuse of power, fraud and embezzlement were also found frequently among those offenses, while instances of civil servants taking bribes declined in comparison. In addition, the commission closed two cases, one involving a civil servant incorrectly declaring property and the other involving property from unidentified sources.
The report revealed ten criminal cases, including a corruption allegation against a department head of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC). The official allegedly commissioned construction design work in 2007 to a company which had his/her spouse as a shareholder. The company received a service fee of MOP2 million; moreover, due to its inadequate design, a delay in subsequent tendering of the construction cost the government in extra project expenses to the amount of over MOP10 million.
Corruption was also found in civil associations. An association’s manager embezzled over MOP1 million of public funds between 2011 and 2012, by overstating expenses and concealing earnings. The association also deceived the Health Bureau, Macao Foundation and the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, so that it could illegally receive funds for one project from different funding bodies.
In a separate case, two doctors working in a private medical institution allegedly defrauded it out of over MOP1.4 million between 2012 and 2014, by profiting through organizing colleagues to refer patients to another clinic to take tests.
Bribery cases involving the private sector saw a slight decline in 2014. Nevertheless, the CCAC revealed that it is sometimes limited in its ability to roll out criminal investigations into the private sector.
“The private sector covers a broad range of industries, whereby different industry norms greatly affect the identification of whether it’s a crime or not. Besides, the law doesn’t permit launching a criminal investigation before informing [the potential litigant], whereas some private companies often tend to hush up [gloss things over] in order to mitigate the negative effect,” said the report.
The CCAC also received six requests from Hong Kong and the mainland’s anti-graft departments for assistance last year; it also made six requests for aid to other jurisdictions in the conduct of investigations. Additionally, the Commission received 449 inquiries regarding criminal offenses.
Meanwhile, the 567 administrative appeals made in 2014 were mostly over alleged violations within the public servant system, police force’s management and law enforcement, as well as municipal affairs.
It also received 572 inquiries to seek help in terms of administrative appeals. Apart from the aforementioned areas, these inquiries also concentrated on medical services and public procurement.
The Commission explained that it followed up the claims and complaints by investigating public departments’ operations for administrative violations or misconduct, as well as assessing the quality and efficiency of services. In the report, the Commission revealed ten cases and slammed departments for malpractice, including that of the Monetary Authority of Macao, the Health Bureau, the Public Security Force, the Consumer Council and the Transport Bureau.
Of these departments, the CCAC disclosed that the Monetary Authority violated the law in several hirings in 2013. The department allegedly tailor-made its scoring ratio and criteria for particular candidates and denied some applicants the right to attend the exam by pre-screening resumes. As a result, the recruitment process will be rerun for the positions in question.
In another case, the CCAC indicated that the authorities had failed to listen to residents’ opposition to a plan to build a footbridge connecting the Taipa Health Centre and a building across the street. The report also disclosed a violation within the Health Bureau, indicating that they did not launch the necessary disciplinary process against a doctor who prescribed incorrect antibiotics to a patient.