Integrity Focus

A then electrician employed by a subcontractor of the construction site of a Community Isolation Facility in Yuen Long during the COVID-19 pandemic, charged by the ICAC, today (April 24) pleaded guilty at the Tuen Mun Magistrates’ Courts to his solicitation and acceptance of bribes from five fellow workers over their employment.

Fung Sui-tuen, 37, former electrician of Perfect City Engineering Limited (Perfect City), pleaded guilty to five charges – two of agent accepting an advantage and three of agent soliciting an advantage, contrary to section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.

Deputy Magistrate Mr Tobias Cheng Yun-chung ordered the defendant to pay $600 being the bribes involved in the present case as restitution to Perfect City. The defendant was granted bail until May 21 for sentence.

When the offences took place between March and April 2022, the defendant was employed by Perfect City as a night shift electrician to conduct urgent fire service installation works at the construction site of a Community Isolation Facility in Yuen Long. Another worker referred by him to work at the site subsequently introduced four other workers to join the team. The wage of the workers, including the defendant, was $2,700 per shift.

The defendant admitted his acceptance of bribes totalling $600 from two of the workers for assisting them to be employed by Perfect City. He also admitted his solicitation of bribes totalling at least $800 from the three other workers for the same purpose. But the solicitation was rejected.

Perfect City did not allow its workers to solicit or accept any advantage from any person for referring them to be employed by the company. The company had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation.

The prosecution was today represented by Public Prosecutor Douglas Lau, assisted by ICAC officer Derek So.

An ICAC spokesperson urges construction workers not to tolerate corruption. Should they be asked to pay bribes in exchange for their employment, they should reject and report to the ICAC immediately. ICAC’s report corruption hotline: 25 266 366.

The ICAC calls on construction companies to adopt the Integrity Risk Management (IRM) Toolkit on recruitment of workers produced by the ICAC to formulate and implement control measures to mitigate integrity risks on recruitment of workers, uplift the integrity management capability and uphold professionalism of the construction industry. IRM Toolkit on recruitment of workers is available at cpas.icac.hk/EN/Info/TP_Library?cate_id=10027.