Integrity Focus

Two Works Supervisors of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) and one supplier, implicated in an ICAC bribery investigation into EMSD frontline staff, were charged on Monday (March 17). The trio were suspected of procuring the award of purchase orders in the total sum of over 13.6 million to the supplier on various occasions in a span of seven years by illicit bribery means, and inflating the number and the price of the items to be purchased. Charges of conspiracy to defraud were laid against the trio, who will appear in the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts this afternoon (March 19) for mention.

As the bribery inquiries are still ongoing, the ICAC would not rule out laying additional charges against the trio or prosecuting other individuals after seeking further legal advice from the Department of Justice.

Two of the defendants are Tsang Tak-keung (57) and Yip Wai-ho (51); both Works Supervisors I posted to the Health Sector Division of the EMSD; and the third defendant Cheung Chun-kit (66), was the sole operator of three suppliers, namely Leader Med Technology Limited, Hi Quali Trading Company and Smartechnique Services Company. The trio face two charges of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to Common Law.

At the material time, Tsang and Yip were responsible for providing maintenance services to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Yau Ma Tei Jockey Club Polyclinic respectively. Among other duties, the duo were responsible for contacting suppliers for quotations of machinery parts used in the works and compiling internal quotation vetting documents (the Quotation Documents).

According to EMSD’s procurement guidelines, the duo should invite more than one supplier for quotations for purchase of items valued equal at or below $50,000. In general practice, three quotations would be obtained from different suppliers in each procurement exercise.

One of the charges alleges that between January 2020 and June 2024, Tsang and Cheung conspired together to defraud the EMSD to make payments to the three companies of Cheung. It is alleged that the duo falsely represented that the companies were respectively the lowest bidder in a procurement involving purchase of items valued at or below $50,000, inflating the number and the price of the items to be purchased, and making false representation that the information contained in the Quotation Documents was true and accurate. It was revealed in the ICAC enquiries that the EMSD had thus awarded around 180 purchase orders in a total sum of over $8 million to the three companies of Cheung.

The other charge alleges that between January 2017 and June 2024, Yip and Cheung conspired together to defraud the EMSD to make payments to the three companies of Cheung by similar fraudulent means. The procurements involved around 140 purchase orders in a total sum of about $5.6 million.

Enquiries by the Commission found that Cheung had allegedly reached an agreement with Tsang and Yip respectively to offer various gifts to them. To fraudulently obtain money to purchase the gifts and allow Cheung to profit margin, the trio had allegedly inflated the quantity and the price of the machinery parts in some of the purchase orders, while some other purchase orders were fabricated.

ICAC enquiries revealed that Tsang is suspected of accepting over 80 gifts worth a total of over $500,000 from Cheung while Yip allegedly accepted from Cheung over 20 gifts worth totalling about $800,000 at the material time. The gifts included luxurious watches, branded handbag, jewelry, various household appliances and digital products etc.

The EMSD rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

In view of the present case, the ICAC has provided corresponding preventive measures for maintenance and procurement work, and enhanced the integrity training for EMSD staff responsible for such procurement to avoid recurrence of similar incidents. The ICAC will continue to work closely with the EMSD on the adoption of preventive measures, and provide training in order to mitigate corruption risks in relation to maintenance and procurement work so as to forge a culture of probity and efficiency.