CCAC takes global corruption ranking seriously, says Cheong

André Cheong

The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) takes Macau’s global corruption ranking seriously, said the head of the CCAC, André Cheong Weng Chon, yesterday on the sidelines of the Liaison Office New Year Reception.

Talking about a recent report [Transparency International 2018] which indicated a fall in Macau’s ranking in the corruption perception index, Cheong said “I also noticed that, between 2009 and 2016, the global rankings of Macau’s corruption perception index were about 40 to 50 [least corrupt region or country]. But, in 2017, the ranking suddenly dropped to over 100, and this year the ranking seems to be even worse, but I don’t remember.”

“We try to understand why there is this change. In 2017, the ranking dropped to double the number of the previous year,” said Cheong, further explaining that he “tried to understand the reason, [before realizing] that it seems the organization changed their criteria for scoring.”

“Because Macau is too small, and since some statistics could not be provided, [the organization] didn’t believe or didn’t ask the government to provide the information, but it collected statistics from NGOs,” said Cheong, adding that “because the association could not collect some of the information, it could not evaluate [the score].”

“From the CCAC’s point of view, this kind of survey is good for forming a clean society, especially at a global level,” said Cheong, adding that “regardless of whether the ranking is high or low, the CCAC pays attention to it, and we will use it as a reference, hoping to push forward Macau’s clean government development.”

Regarding Hong Kong’s ranking being far ahead of Macau’s, Cheong said that he gives more consideration to the Macau public’s opinion.

In addition, when talking about the former Iec Long Firework Factory, Cheong said that the government does not need to bear the fee to take back the land.

“If it involves a criminal situation, the CCAC will definitely follow it up,” said Cheong.

“Regardless of whether it’s the Iec Long Firework Factory reports or other reports, we always feel that laws and administrations in land management need to be improved. If there are conditions, we will see whether there [is a] chance for us to review the land management [policies],” said Cheong.

In addition, Cheong is not giving an estimated time for completing the analysis of the cases of 74 plots of expired land.

The CCAC is currently collecting information and documents about the 74 cases.

Cheong believes that the change in government will not affect the progress of CCAC’s work.

Liaison office head still learning about Macau

ON THE sidelines of yesterday’s Liaison Office New Year Reception, the Director of the Liaison Office, Fu Ziying, said that he still needs to learn more about Macau, having only been appointed to the territory approximately one month ago.  Fu remarked that Macau’s development will enter a new phase when the SAR government leadership changes in the near future. Fu hopes that Macau can take more initiative to enhance communications with mainland China, and that Macau can be brave at trying things, in particular regarding the development of the Greater Bay Area.