Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao 1 Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao Contents FOREWORD............................................................................................................5 PART I CASE PROCESSING SUMMARY..........................................................9 I. Number of reports...........................................................................................11 II. Case processing...............................................................................................14 PART II ANTI-CORRUPTION..............................................................................15 I. Numbers of reports and cases filed for investigation..............................17 II. Summaries of part of the cases investigated by CCAC.............................18 III. Joint investigation into cross-boundary cases and judicial assistance.....36 PART III OMBUDSMAN........................................................................................39 I. Introduction..............................................................................................41 II. Number and nature of requests for help and consultation.........................42 III. Investigation file, analysis and recommendation...........................................47 IV. Summary of some ombudsman cases............................................................48 PART IV OTHERS..................................................................................................71 I. Declaration of incomes and properties.....................................................73 II. Training and exchange programmes.............................................................74 III. Revision of Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of Macao Special Administrative Region approved by Legislative Assembly................78 PART V INTEGRITY PROMOTIONS & COMMUNITY RELATIONS.........81 I. A series of activities commemorating “20 Years of Integrity Building of Macao”.............................................................................................................83 II. Integrity education.........................................................................................88 III. Promotion in the community......................................................................100 IV. Contacts and exchanges...............................................................................104 2 Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao PART VI APPENDIX..........................................................................................109 Appendix I Legal commentary reports submitted to Chief Executive by CCAC in 2012..............................................................................111 1. Legal opinion on the “Pre-qualification of international tender regarding the reclamation of land in a particular district and construction of the dike of the new development zone (Report no. 2) ........................................................................113 2. Opinion concerning the bill of Legal Regime of Urban Construction..........................................................................123 Appendix II Some of the recommendations and investigation reports by CCAC...........................................................................................131 1. Investigation report on a complaint related to a claim against the Macao Customs Service...........................................................133 2. Report on several legal issues regarding the Monetary Authority of Macao approving the Bank of China Macau Branch to issue 100th anniversary uncut commemorative notes (excerpt)...................................................................................175 3. Investigation report on the light rail passing Rua de Londres and Rua de Cidade do Porto in Macao.....................................193 4. Analysis report on a complaint related to an administrative omission...................................................................................289 5. About the investigation report on the basis for termination of fixed-term appointment of Deputy Director of Fire Services Bureau and relevant complaints...............................................303 6. Investigation and analysis report on complaints regarding the information requested when handling birth registration by Civil Affairs Registry...............................................................313 7. A report (excerpt) on handling of complaint that local mobile phone users can only use 3G service from 9th July 2012 and suggested measures..................................................................323 Appendix III The CCAC’s Complaint Handling Procedure................................345 Appendix IV Organisational Structure of the Commission Against Corruption......347 3 Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao The Commissioner Against Corruption, Fong Man Chong, submitting the 2012 Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao to the Chief Executive, Dr. Chui Sai On 4 Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao FOREWORD Seasons come and go in the never-ending cycles of nature. Here comes the spring of 2013 – a time to review the past and look into the future. In 2012, we saw a year-on-year increase in corruption reports and cases filed for investigation in the public sector. The areas most prone to corruption were procurement, public works contracting, expense reimbursement (involving document forgery) and other duty-related practices. Short of supervisory mechanisms, defective regimes and lax law enforcement have been some of the underlying reasons. As a law enforcement body, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) pledges to exert all efforts in graft fighting and remain punctilious towards minute details of each case. When it comes to the private sector, corrupt practices were mostly found in procurement procedures involving commission acceptance against the interests of companies, tendering processes involving falsification of prices and documents to secure tenders, or situations where pecuniary advantage was solicited from workers by fraud. In 2012, the reports and cases in the private sector reached over 100. On the ombudsman front, the CCAC handled nearly 1,000 cases last year. Due to rapid social development and the emergence of new problems, the complaints involved manifold aspects of people’s livelihood, including medical service, public works, public security, economical and social housing, education and municipal affairs. All of these were largely concerned with government’s policies and decisions rather than technical or execution matters. Causes of the said problems can be concluded as follows: - The mechanism building process is subject to unclear positioning, sluggish development and unpractical propositions. It fails to keep up with the rapid development of the Macao society. As a result, the existing mechanisms turn out to be outdated and necessary mechanisms have yet to come out; - Administrative procedures have yet to be further streamlined and the theory of cutting administrative costs has yet to be applied in public administration; 5 Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao - Timeliness is not valued in public administration, and therefore many plans have become empty talks; - Administrative practices get stuck in a rut and there is still a lack of accountability in public administration; - What should be done has been left undone and decisions are usually made much behind time. Administration theories have already proved that omission of duty or failing to take prompt actions could even be worse than not acting sensibly. Effectiveness depends totally on how strong the enforcement is, and therefore a sensible executor should never stop seeking improvement. As a matter of fact, winners are those who change methods but not goals, while losers often act the opposite. Things will hardly see real achievements unless they are done at a right moment. As a saying goes, “the easiness or difficulty is determined by whether something is done at a suitable time, not its complexity”. Checks and balances are indispensable in the fight of corruption. The ultimate goal of mechanism optimisation is to limit the powers in an effective way. We should not neglect that any defect in mechanism building can have far-reaching adverse impact on society. The existence of outdated mechanisms is no better than the lack of them. On the education front, the CCAC has continuously promoting the awareness of probity among all walks of life by holding training sessions and seminars. A total of 459 seminars were held in 2012, attracting 27,679 public servants, management personnel and employees of private institutions, teenaged students and association members. Various activities were also organised in collaboration with different associations to disseminate the message of integrity. The CCAC proposed amendments to its organic law and the law of declaration of incomes and properties in 2012. In 2013, we will also put forward our suggestions to the SAR government about the establishment of two laws, namely, a legal regime against bribing foreign public officials and members of international organisations and a legal regime against trading in influence. They will serve as part of our initiatives to perfect the network of integrity building of Macao, and to develop an 6 Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao effective checks and balances system – an obligation enshrined in the United Nations Convention against Corruption. March 2013 The Commissioner against Corruption Fong Man