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Case Studies
The wise choice
York, the owner of a handbag shop, noticed that many tourists were visiting a watch store nearby. Realising the potential for increased business from inbound visitors, he planned to have his shop registered with the Travel Industry Authority (TIA) through a travel agent's recommendation.
One day, when tourist guide Yvette brought a tour group to the watch store, York approached her with an offer of $10,000 and discounts from his store in exchange for recommending his shop to her travel agent. Tempted by the proposal, Yvette recommended York's shop to her travel agent for registration without thoroughly verifying its quality, pricing, or service standards.
Once York's shop became registered, Yvette frequently brought tour groups to patronise it. To show appreciation for Yvette's assistance, York rewarded her with an additional $5,000.
Case Analysis
When recommending shop registration to the travel agent, tourist guides should consider product quality, pricing, and services to ensure customer satisfaction and preserve the travel agent’s reputation. If any acceptance of advantage is involved, regardless of the recommendation’s outcome, it would constitute a corruption offence. Yvette, as a tourist guide, is regarded as an agent. Without the permission of her principal, i.e. her travel agent, she abused her official capacity by accepting money and shop discounts from York as an inducement to recommend the handbag shop for registration. She might breach Section 9 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) and York as the offeror of the bribe might also be liable for the offence.
Even if the travel agent did not eventually accept Yvette's recommendation to register the handbag shop, both Yvette and York might still commit an offence once an agreement to offer and accept a bribe is established, according to Section 11 of the POBO. Furthermore, if Yvette arranged inbound tourists to patronise non-registered shops, she would also violate the “Directives for Licensees”.