The city’s corruption watchdog has discovered that a worker at the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) secretly controlled a youth association and allegedly embezzled subsidies from the bureau through false reporting on the number of participants and the contents of activities.
A case was opened following a complaint received by the bureau.
Following investigations, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) discovered that in order to evade the recusal system, the suspect registered a local youth association in 2017 under the names of his wife and friends. He then secretly controlled the operation of the association in his capacity as an “adviser”.
Then the suspect applied to the DSEDJ for subsidies for activities on several occasions under the name of the association or in the guise of other youth associations.
Since his job was to analyze applications for the “Annual Subsidy Scheme for Activities of Youth Groups”, the public servant was familiar with the vetting and approval criteria, the assessment procedure and the gaps in oversight.
“He defrauded the subsidies many times with receipts and documentary proofs forged by himself or others under his instruction through overstating the expenses and number of participants of the activities and concealing the income from tour fees,” CCAC stated.
In addition, when analyzing and examining the relevant applications, the suspect took advantage of his position to give encouraging advice to his superior and recommend payment of the subsidies he had applied for fraudulently.
After the application deadlines expired, the suspect continued to access the subsidy application system to input data in order to prepare proposals, suggesting that his superior approve the relevant applications.
Eventually, the applications were approved. The case involved more than a dozen activities that took place inside and outside Macau and the embezzled subsidies amounted to over MOP500,000 in total.
Moreover, after knowing that the DSEDJ was conducting an internal review of the applications made by the youth association involved, the suspect stole the internal assessment documents from the server of the DSEDJ and secretly gave them to the members of the association so that they could prepare their responses when questioned by investigators.
The DSEDJ worker has allegedly committed an abuse of power, unlawfully exercising economic advantage, forgery committed by a public servant, computer forgery and illegitimate acquisition, use or provision of computer data.
Also, the suspect and five members of the youth association involved are alleged to have committed document forgery and fraud. The case has been referred to the Public Prosecutions Office.
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