The Independent Commission Against Corruption has received more than 500 reports of corruption in the construction industry in the past 4 years

Corruption cases are frequent in the construction industry. The Corruption Prevention Division of the Independent Commission Against Corruption has recently launched the "Integrity Management System" lazy bag, which provides a sample checklist by category to help the industry identify corruption risks and formulate mitigations in four areas, including invitation for quotations and tendering procedures. Program.

Fok Kwong-man, Assistant Director of the Corruption Prevention Division of the ICAC, said that the construction industry in Hong Kong has an annual construction volume of more than 200 billion yuan, involving huge amounts of money and complicated procedures, and correspondingly higher risks of corruption. In the past four years since 2019, more than 500 In case of corruption reports, I hope the lazy bag can be used as a reference for the industry to raise awareness of corruption prevention.

The Corruption Prevention Division of the Independent Commission Against Corruption launched the "Integrity Management System" lazy bag to help the construction industry identify corruption risks and formulate mitigation plans.

On the left is Fok Kwong-man, Assistant Director of the Corruption Prevention Division, and on the right is Mr. Chan Chi-chiu, Chairman of the Construction Industry Council's Select Committee on Registered Specialist Contractor System.

(Photo by Chen Shuxia)

It mainly involves four major problems, engineering supervision turns a blind eye or endangers public safety

According to the statistics of the ICAC, a total of 423 corruption complaints were received in the construction industry in the past three years, of which the maximum number was 174 last year, and a total of 79 cases were recorded in the first eight months of this year, that is, from 2019 to August 2022. 502 corruption complaints in the construction industry.

Fok Kwong-man, Assistant Director of the Corruption Prevention Division, said that the construction industry in Hong Kong has an annual construction volume of more than 200 billion yuan. Due to the huge amount involved, coupled with the complex procedures, the risk of corruption is also high. Common examples include contract awarding and private contract awarding, and worker recruitment. Collection of referral fees, early release of project funds, and project supervision “opening one’s eyes and closing one’s eyes”, etc.

He continued that if the corruption involved project supervision, it would not only affect the quality of the project, but also endanger public safety.

Therefore, the construction industry needs to improve its own integrity management. "It's like taking a vaccine. In addition to taking external defense measures to prevent virus invasion, it should also improve self-resistance."

The ICAC "Integrity Management System" Lazy Pack (click here) is produced by integrating research data on corruption complaints in the industry, covering four major areas: procurement by quotation, procurement by tender, corporate integrity and governance, and employee management Construction companies identify high-risk projects and help develop corresponding preventive measures.

Fok Kwong-man said that the annual construction volume of Hong Kong's construction industry exceeds 200 billion yuan. Due to the huge amount involved and the complicated procedures, the risk of corruption is also high.

(file picture)

Consultant executive sentenced son company to 39 months in prison for hotel project

For example, Huo Guangwen pointed out that in the past, employees of construction companies colluded with contractors to give preferential treatment in bidding or evaluation of tenders and other procedures, so that they successfully won the bid. There was a hotel project that the senior management of the consulting company would handle, and the son was awarded without declaration. Company, involving more than 23 million yuan, was sentenced to 39 months in prison.

He said that in the reference template of the "Integrity Management System" lazy bag, a total of 20 integrity risks are listed in four categories to help companies self-assess their risk levels and provide about 100 control measures for construction companies' reference.

Taking procurement as an example, the reference template in the lazy bag states that if an enterprise only invites collaborating suppliers or contractors to submit quotations and conceals the conflict of interest between bidders and handlers, it has already involved the highest level of integrity risk. You can take precautions against the examples provided in the lazy bag, such as expanding the list of invited quotations, requiring employees participating in the bid review to declare their interests, and monitor them.

The "Integrity Management System" of the ICAC helps construction companies identify high-risk projects in various engineering processes and formulate corresponding anti-corruption measures.

(Screenshot of Integrity Risk Management Reference Template for Procurement (Quotation Form))

Fok Kwong-man continued that the Corruption Prevention Division of the ICAC will also provide corruption prevention services to construction companies, including organizing integrity training, assisting them in formulating integrity risk management for work areas with high corruption risks, and providing tailor-made services at the request of individual companies. Corruption prevention advice, the "Integrity Management System" lazy pack that can be downloaded from the ICAC's official website is a voluntary measure, and enterprises are expected to actively participate.

He continued that although corruption may occur in various industries in Hong Kong, on the whole, "Hong Kong's public works projects are still one of the cleanest."

Chen Zhichao, former Director of Drainage Services and Chairman of the Construction Industry Council's Selected Committee on Registered Specialized Contractors in the Industry, said that the scope of works in the industry is broad and the scale is different. Limited, you may not know how to formulate anti-corruption measures. I believe this lazy bag can help the industry to further prevent it from happening.

The Corruption Prevention Division has developed an "Integrity Management System" (IMS) for the construction industry, which includes three elements: Integrity Policy, Integrity Training and Integrity Risk Management, to assist construction companies in improving their corruption prevention capabilities in a systematic way, and to deal with daily business issues. Integrity matters.

Chan Chi Chiu pointed out that the Development Bureau included the "Integrity Policy" and "Integrity Training" in IMS last year as the registration requirements for public works contractors.

In addition, the Construction Industry Council has incorporated "Integrity Risk Management" into the system of registered specialized industry contractors. About 8,000 registered construction companies are required to implement an integrity policy, and it is estimated that about 2,600 senior managers are required to participate in integrity training every year.

The ICAC prosecutes 5 "foremans" and workers in the airport's third-run contract for collecting 200,000 yuan in bribes in exchange for the start of construction. Corruption in the airport three-run project includes the hiring of the general manager of the Airport Authority on a short-term contract. The ICAC accuses the expansion subcontractor of the United Hospital. Subcontractor, er, 900,000 yuan