Integrity Focus

A then foreman of a sub-contractor of the Drainage Services Department (DSD), charged by the ICAC, was today (November 29) sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment after admitting at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts that he had accepted bribes totalling over $45,000 from workers under his supervision.

Xiao Qisheng, 57, former foreman of Kong Power Engineering Limited (Kong Power), pleaded guilty to three counts of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. The prosecution offered no evidence to one count of obtaining property by deception and one count of blackmail against him.

In sentencing, Magistrate Mr Jason Wan Siu-ming said the case was serious in nature warranting a custodial sentence as the defendant exploited various subordinate workers for over a year.

The magistrate also ordered the defendant to repay over $45,000, being the bribes involved in the case, to Kong Power as restitution.

At the material time, Kong Power was a sub-contractor of a drainage maintenance and construction project of the DSD. The defendant was a foreman at the construction site of the project, who was responsible for leading and supervising workers. He would also introduce workers to work at the construction site.

Between March 2020 and March 2021, the defendant accepted bribes totalling over $45,000 from three workers under his supervision. The workers believed that they would be terminated by Kong Power if bribes ranging from $50 to $100 per working day were not paid to the defendant. The defendant started to pick on the trio and suspended their duties on pretexts of laziness and bad attitude after they refused to pay bribes.

Kong Power had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officers Danny Chan and Paul Ho.

In recent years, the ICAC has taken a series of enforcement actions against solicitation and acceptance of illegal rebates from construction workers and launched a series of relevant publicity and education programmes. The ICAC urges construction workers not to tolerate corruption. Should they be asked to pay bribes in exchange for their employment, they should report to the ICAC immediately. ICAC’s report corruption hotline: 25 266 366.