A group of seven employees of Macau’s Cultural Industries Fund have claimed that former member Chao Son U pressured them to provide favorable testimonies during an investigation launched by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) following suspicions of illegal practices linked to a subsidy granting case.
CCAC had launched a probe to investigate whether Chao Son U, former member of the cultural industries fund administrative committee, had committed any crime in granting a subsidy to a company owned by his direct family members. Mr Chao was later sacked.
Macau’s anti-graft agency decided last week to shelve the case, announcing that it had found no evidence to prove that Mr Chao had engaged in any illegal practices related to the granting process.
Last week a group of seven cultural industries fund employees held a press conference criticizing CCAC’s handling of the case. According to local media, the employees are claiming that Mr Chao instructed them on how to reply to questions posed during an inquiry launched by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture’s cabinet.
Furthermore, they also claim that after replying to questions posed by the Secretary’s office, Mr Chao met with the employees to gather details on the contents of their talks. Newspaper Hoje Macau reported that the employees have even suggested that they were pressured to reply to the Secretary’s office questions under Mr Chao’s guidance, because “he held a higher [job] position.”
The employees also stated that the CCAC probe into the case was “too simplified.”
“The CCAC believes that the issues [mentioned by the employees] have already been clarified and thoroughly considered in the inquiry carried out by the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, and during the supplementary investigation conducted by CCAC,” the anti-graft agency said in a statement.
CCAC recalled that both the Secretary’s inquiry and their own probe showed that Mr Chao had requested to be excused from the subsidy-granting assessment process for the company owned by his relatives. “No acts able to affect the assessment and approval that could result in illicit gains have been found,” CCAC said.
“The CCAC also believes there is no evidence proving that the then-member has committed any illegal or irregular actions in the relevant assessment and approval process,” it added.
Moreover, Macau’s anti-graft agency said that it also investigated the possibility of employees being pressured to provide favorable testimonies, but found “no reliable evidence” of wrongdoing. “According to the inquiry’s findings and supplementary investigation, over 20 staff members of the fund, all except one, said in their written statements that the then-member of the fund had not exerted pressure,” CCAC recalled.
The body reiterated that it found no evidence of illegal or irregular activity committed by Mr Chao, and therefore decided to shelve the case. It also stated that the probe was conducted over a short period of time, in order to ensure the interests of those involved and also due to local media’s coverage of the case.
“Whenever there is sufficient evidence of involvement in illegal acts, an in-depth investigation and appropriate follow-up measures should be put in place. Meanwhile, the principles of ‘legality’ and ‘giving the benefit of the doubt to a suspect’ [in dubio pro reo] shall also be strictly followed under the current legal system in order to ensure citizens’ fundamental rights,” CCAC recalled. CP
Davina Chu to join Cultural Industries Fund
Former Macau Grand Prix official Davina Chu will replace sacked Cultural Industries Fund administrative committee member Chao Son U, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture told TDM on Friday.
“I’m not going to comment on the CCAC report. Before [Davina Chu] was a board member of the tourism services. I think Davina is the right person for the job as a new member of the Cultural Industries Fund,” he stated.
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