Authorities should not condone illegal occupation of official land

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Written by: Commentary Editing Room

2020-08-10 17:10

In March 2017, the Lands Department stated that it would tighten the processing of "occupy first, then standardize" applications, and reiterated that the Department will continue to "reserve the right during the processing of applications or when issuing short-term tenancies, as far as possible as more evidence is available The tolerance fee shall be traced back to the day when the occupant begins to occupy, rather than just starting from the day when the occupation is discovered." Unexpectedly, the media recently discovered that some New Territories squires had previously been "released" by the department and refused to collect the rent before the standardized lease took effect. This makes people question that the government is still conniving on this issue.

There are endless cases of doubtful enforcement effect

In July last year, the Lands Department set up a special operations task force to focus on cracking down on serious cases of large-scale occupation of government land. At that time, the authorities claimed that the task force would "proactively detect violations" and "will announce the results of operations from time to time." ; In December of the same year, the department announced that the task force had cleared about 12 hectares of illegally occupied government land in Yuen Long, Tuen Mun and North District. However, until today, when the task force was established for more than a year, the Lands Department has not announced the results of the task force.

On the contrary, there have been more official land occupation scandals in the past six months or so. For example, Assistant Commissioner Tao Hui in Clear Water Bay Bishui New Village residential license house, Police Public Relations Superintendent Liu Zhaobang and Auxiliary Police Force Superintendent Yang Zuci in Sai Kung Beigang The village houses under the name of the new village were all revealed to occupy government land for gardens and parking spaces. Even in the Yuen Long District, where the task force was once the main task force, large tracts of official land adjacent to Changchun New Village and Penglongdi have been illegally reclaimed. It can be seen that the effect of the department's management is far from satisfactory.

Excessively low prosecution figures and penalties lack deterrence

In addition to doubts about the effectiveness of the investigation, the Lands Department's negligence in prosecution figures is also a major problem. In the past six years, the Department found 61,797 cases of illegal occupation of government land through inspections and referrals from other departments. However, the number of prosecutions was only 122, which is less than 0.2% of all cases. The authorities explained that this is to wait and confirm that the illegal occupation has not ceased within the statutory notice period, and to search for sufficient evidence to identify the responsible party, but even after considering these factors, the above prosecution figures are still alarmingly low.

As for the punishment for the crime of occupying official land, it also lacks sufficient deterrent power. According to Article 6 of the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance, the first offender of illegal occupation of official land is liable to a fine of 500,000 yuan and 6 months’ imprisonment, and an additional fine of 50,000 yuan per day during the duration of the crime. Doubled, but in fact, in the past six years, there has never been a case of conviction that has actually been punished with the highest fine. The so-called duration of the crime is counted on the expiry of the notice period.

The widespread phenomenon of illegal land occupation is a clear evidence that Hong Kong’s land has not been used wisely. However, the government, which has repeatedly emphasized that Hong Kong is facing severe land shortages, seems to turn a deaf ear to it. The performance of detection and prosecution is completely unsatisfactory. He did not even work hard to recover the rent or fines of those who had already occupied the land. The authorities must further strengthen the relevant work, and should consider substantially increasing the punishment measures to prevent re-offending.

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