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Case Studies
Acting against personal integrity
Company A was a food supplier of Hotel B. Mr Cheung, the purchasing manager of Hotel B, was responsible for managing the performance of suppliers, including Company A, and checking the qualities of its food supply.
Recently, Company A had bought a batch of substandard food in order to cut cost and the batch was about to be delivered to Hotel B. The poor quality of the food supply was discovered by Mr Cheung upon delivery. To cover up, the proprietor of Company A asked Mr Cheung to turn a blind eye and to acknowledge the receipt. In return, Company A paid Mr Cheung a handsome amount of money for accepting the substandard food. After a series of customer complaints regarding the poor food quality, Hotel B had no choice but to dispose the entire batch of substandard food and to bear a huge financial loss.
Case Analysis
It is an offence under Section 9 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) for any person, who without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, to offer any advantage to any agent as an inducement to or reward for the agent to abuse his authority in relation to his principal’s affairs or business.
The proprietor of Company A might breach Section 9(2) of the POBO for offering Mr Cheung a handsome amount of money for Mr Cheung’s accepting the substandard food without the approval of his principal, i.e. Hotel B.
Mr Cheung might also breach Section 9(1) for accepting an advantage for turning a blind eye to the substandard food quality. Mr Cheung’s unethical behaviour constituted a serious breach of trust to his employer and caused unfairness to other suppliers and customers. Substandard food quality might also jeopardize the food safety if not properly taken care of.