Former IACM inspectors allegedly abused their power

Inspectors from the Department of Sewerage and Urban Roads of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) have allegedly made things difficult for construction companies undertaking underground piping projects and have reportedly solicited advantages from them.

The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) found that a serving inspector and a former inspector of IACM allegedly committed a range of similar offences, including abuse of office, document forgery, high-value fraud, abuse of trust, money laundering and intentionally making false declarations of assets.

According to a statement issued by the CCAC, the cases have been referred to the Public Prosecutions Office.

Applications for excavation permits must be made to the IACM in advance in cases of trench excavations in public streets for infrastructure construction and pipe connections, whether they are to be carried out by private entities or public utility companies.

The inspectors of the Division of Public Roads under the Department of Sewerage and Urban Roads of the IACM are responsible for site supervision during excavation periods, in addition to handling project delays.

According to the anti-graft watchdog’s investigation, an inspector from the Division of Public Roads allegedly abused his supervisory power to illegally obtain advantages at a roadworks site.

As such, the quality of roadworks under his supervision could not be ensured, and extra time for the roadworks was arbitrarily granted, leading to repeated schedule delays.

An IACM worker surnamed Kou was an inspector working under the trench excavations monitoring group.

Knowing that there would be contractors carrying out underground piping works, Kou abused his inspectorate position by attempting to contact the contractors and ask them to sub-contract the works to his friend’s company.

Kou also pretended to be the representative of his friend’s company and accepted the projects.

He sub-contracted the projects again to other companies for implementation at prices lower than that offered by the original contractors in order to obtain profit.

Once the fees from the contractors were received, Kou kept the majority of the proceeds for himself and defaulted payments to the subcontracting companies which were carrying out the works.

Kou also forged his friend’s company chop, quotation letters and invoices so that he could get the projects and receive payments.

Kou has defrauded projects from several construction companies by similar means in the past three years, which involved an amount of fraudulently obtained money approximating MOP550,000. He has allegedly committed abuse of office, document forgery, high-value fraud and money laundering.

CCAC added that Kou abused his power by requesting the contractors of piping works to sub-contract them to the companies he introduced.

After receiving payment from the contractors, Kou obtained financial advantage in the form of the contractual price difference, constituting the crimes of abuse of office and abuse of trust.

Moreover, using the excuse that he had successfully bid for a lunar New Year firecracker vending booth, Kou requested that owners of the piping works companies buy firecrackers and fireworks at a price higher than market value.

The owners who refused to make purchases were given a hard time and punished by Kou without valid reason the following year.

From that point, they purchased firecrackers from Kou at a price set by him every year. Those who purchased firecrackers from Kou no longer experienced difficulties in sewage works for which they were responsible, and those projects were supervised with more relaxed standards.

Such acts constituted an abuse of office, the CCAC reiterated.

The bureau found that that Kou has been addicted to gambling for a long time, having both a betting account in a lottery company and being a frequenter of slot parlors for gambling.

The CCAC also found that Wong, another inspector of the Division of Public Roads who resigned in February this year, formed a works company with his friends in the name of his elder brother when he was working for the IACM.

Taking advantage of his duty to supervise underground piping works, Wong obtained contracts of some piping projects through the company he controlled. Moreover, he was still engaged in the supervision of the projects conducted by the company and relaxed the supervision standards so that the company could escape punishment despite several irregularities in its works.

Between 2014 and 2016, Wong was responsible for the supervision of more than 30 piping projects done by the company, which have also been found to constitute an abuse of office.

ccac probe follows audit report

THE CCAC findings follow a report issued in May by the Commission of Audit (CA) criticizing the “Road Works Coordination Group.” The IACM president, José Tavares, reacted to the CA report revealing that “four inspectors who did not do their work carefully, back in the years of 2014 and 2015, have already been removed from their positions.” He said that IACM had started disciplinary processes against them.