Policies and Measures of Year 2009
Part I
Review of Implementation of Policies and Measures in 2008
In 2008, the CCAC fulfilled its responsibilities under the four-pronged strategy of "anti-corruption, prevention, law enactment and education". The efforts included the reinforcement of its supervision on middle-and-high-ranking public servants, the advancement of collaborative mechanisms with public departments, the publicity of its function of ombudsman and the safeguard of citizens' legitimate rights and interests. Meanwhile, the CCAC has also furthered the promotion of integrity in the public administration, the community relation and citizens' integrity awareness and has initiated moral education for teenagers in order to promote the value of honesty. Moreover, the CCAC has put more resources in intelligence analysis, information technologies and promotion in the community. In order to strengthen the overall capacity of integrity construction, the CCAC was restructuring its organization.
The scope of supervision of the CCAC will be extended to the private sector under the Macao SAR government's Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2008 and the objectives of The United Nations Convention against Corruption. Therefore, the CCAC has already drafted a legislative proposal of the expansion according to the relevant experiences in various advanced regions and the actual situation in Macao and submitted the proposal to the Chief Executive in mid-2008, while a series of promotional and opinion exchanging campaigns have been started successfully.
Up to September 2008, the CCAC had received a total of 602 complaints and reports, registering a year-on-year increase. 261 of these cases were qualified to be handled, while 71 and 190 among them involved criminal offences and administrative complaints respectively, a slight decrease compared to the same period last year. During the first nine months, a total of 113 cases were processed, with 28 cases commenced for investigation, 84 cases carried over from last year and one case re-opened. Currently, the CCAC has concluded 39 cases, among which 10 have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office. The Court of First Instance has already adjudicated five cases transferred by the CCAC, with two of them involving the mega-corruption case of Ao Man Long. The remaining three involved frauds committed by a member of a vehicle association and a staff of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau respectively and forging technical notation by some staffs of the Financial Services Bureau. The Court of Final Appeal has also adjudicated the mega-corruption case of Ao Man Long. Moreover, the CCAC has handled a total of 32 cases which were requests for assistance from counterparts outside the territory during the first eight months of 2008.
Since early 2008, the social response to the verdicts of corruption cases involving Ao Man Long and the individuals concerned has been very overwhelming. In early 2008, the Court of Final Appeal convicted Ao Man Long of 57 counts of crimes including bribery and money laundering and sentenced him to 27-year imprisonment. Later, other offenders were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 7 to 25 years. It is the first time in the history in Macao that so many people have ever been sentenced to heavy penalties on corruption charges at the same time. Other lawsuits related to Ao's case have been scheduled for trial, while four related cases have been referred to judiciary authorities this year.
In addition to those cases, the CCAC detected two cases involving prison guards accepting bribe, two cases of frauds committed by public servants and one case of embezzlement of public property in the first half of 2008. These achievements reflected that corruption still existed among public servants and more improvement in their conduct was needed.
On the front of ombudsman, the CCAC had received 190 administrative complaints up to September. In addition to 55 cases carried over from last year, the CCAC had to handle a total of 245 cases, which mainly involved the legal system governing public services and the operation of government departments. In order to help the citizens solve their problems effectively and quickly, many of the cases were either followed up in an informal way or transferred to departments concerned, while some cases involved significant problems were commenced for investigation. Furthermore, 489 consultations and enquiries were received, registering a slight decrease over the same period last year.
Regarding examinations on systems and operations, the CCAC went on to check the implementation of suggested measures to improve the examined operations of some public departments, especially the follow-up of the examinations on land grant and construction project contracting systems. In the first half of 2008, the CCAC commenced an examination on the operation of the Department of Travel Document of the Identification Bureau, which was then finished in April. Meanwhile, the examination on the operation of the Labour Inspection Department of the Labour Affairs Bureau is ongoing.
Since the Integrity Management Plan was implemented in the later half of 2007, the CCAC has already signed the Integrity Management Plan - Protocol of Collaboration with 60 departments. Under the protocol, the CCAC assisted them in improving their internal management especially in the corruption-prone areas, and strengthened the public servants' awareness of integrity and conflict of interests.
At the same time, the CCAC organized a large-scale symposium on corruption in the private sector in March 2008. A number of experts and scholars from Hong Kong, Portugal and Macao were invited to share their experiences. Since April, seminars had been co-organized with associations in various industries such as construction, financial and catering industries, small and medium sized companies and the tourism sector in order to collect opinions on the prevention of corruption in the private sector. The response was overwhelming.
According to the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy's annual report, Trend of Corruption in Asia 2008, Macao is ranked 4th among the 13 evaluated countries and regions, following after Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan with a grade of 3.3. Compared with last year, there were no changes in the top four rankings. However, Macao's score this year was the best so far, reflecting that the integrity situation in Macao had improved. (In 2007, Macao scored 5.18 on a scale of 10 to 0. 10 refers to the most corrupt while a lower grade reflects a less corrupt society.)
In 2008, the CCAC kept on its efforts on enhancing its relation with the community and the effectiveness of integrity education. Meanwhile, in view of rapid social development over recent years, the CCAC strengthened the publicity of the value of honesty and law-abidingness among the teenagers and elevated their moral quality. The teaching materials targeting secondary students were being developed. Moreover, the CCAC implemented specific promotions of integrity on the basis of its experience in detecting the cases involved the public services in which corruption, administrative illegalities and maladministration often occurred.
Part II
Policies and Measures for 2009
Looking forward to 2009, the CCAC will continue its efforts to fight corruption and carry out the duties of ombudsman in accordance with its legal competence, fulfilling its responsibilities effectively. The CCAC will go on to further the partnership with the government departments, promote integrity management in the departments, publicize the function of ombudsman, protect citizens' legitimate rights and interests, plug legal loopholes concerning corruption and malpractices through examinations on operations and systems, sustain moral education for teenagers in order to promote value of honesty, strive to expedite community relation and promotion of integrity and citizens' awareness of probity.
The 3rd Chief Executive Election and the 4th Legislative Assembly Election will be held in 2009. To safeguard the integrity of election and uphold its credibility will be the Commission's main duties in 2009. As the Legislative Assembly Election will bring bigger challenge, the CCAC commenced the initial stage of preparation in 2008. And as the preparatory works will become more intensive as the election is approaching, the CCAC staff will do their best to uphold integrity of the elections with an earnest attitude.
Due to rapid changes in social development, the demand for extension of supervisory power over the private sector is growing. Since the Macao government announced the policy to expand the CCAC's jurisdiction to the private sector in 2008, the Commission has commenced a series of measures in preparation for the implementation of the policy, including adjustment of resources, personnel training and publicity. It is expected that these preparatory works will be more specific and thorough in 2009. Once the law is adopted, the CCAC will carry out extensive promotions in the society.
On anti-corruption, the CCAC will continue to further personnel training in order to meet the demand caused by the proposed expansion of jurisdiction and the elections. Meanwhile, the CCAC will enhance the capabilities of intelligence collection and analysis and will upgrade the technical and supportive facilities in order to achieve a greater improvement of manpower, resources and technologies. Moreover, the CCAC will go on to reinforce the collaborative mechanisms with the departments by furthering the partnership regarding notification obligation, standardization of legal interpretation and internal supervision.
Also, the CCAC will do the best to promote and facilitate the implementation of The United Nations Convention against Corruption in Macao within its competence and will further the exchange of intelligence and the cooperation with Mainland China, Hong Kong and other countries and regions and the mutual case assistance mechanism in order to suppress cross-border criminal acts more effectively.
On the front of ombudsman, the Commission's main objectives are to uphold citizens' legitimate rights and interests and uplift the integrity and justice of public administration. As the number of enquiries received was going up over a few years, the CCAC will remain independent and just while conducting investigations into complaints and will rectify the mistakes caused by administrative illegalities and maladministration in order to meet the citizens' demand and help them solve their problems as soon as possible. Also, the CCAC will further its communication with the public in order to improve the citizens' understanding of administrative procedures and law, enhance the transparency of administrative procedures and reduce misunderstandings and disputes between the citizens and the government.
Regarding examinations on public administrative operations, the CCAC will continue to partner with different departments in order to achieve an agreement to improve the administrative procedures. As to examinations on public administrative systems, the CCAC will conduct researches and analyses on the systems according to social development, citizens' concern and the problems that were not solved effectively by previous investigations and will bring up comments and suggestions for improvement.
Under the "Integrity Management Plan - Protocol of Collaboration", the CCAC will go on to assist the public departments in enhancing integrity management and will reinforce the cooperation and reduce the possibilities of corruption. Moreover, the CCAC will boost the capabilities of corruption prevention by enhancing personnel training and communication with the anti-corruption authorities of the neighbouring regions.
Aiming to generalize integrity promotion, the CCAC will commence campaigns in 2009 in a systematic way. As to the public sector, the CCAC will summarize the problems concerning corruption in the public services and will organize seminars to promote integrity in a specific way so as to encourage the public servants to create a corruption-free culture. As to the private sector, the CCAC will organize seminars and opinion-exchange activities to promote the culture of probity in the private firms and associations. Regarding moral education for teenagers, the CCAC will continue to work with schools to develop "The New Generation of Integrity" and "Honesty and Integrity Programme for Teenagers" and promote moral teaching materials targeting secondary students.
Publicity of a clean election is the CCAC's focus in the area of promotion and education in 2009. The Commission will carry out the campaigns systematically in order to promote electoral integrity in diversified and multiple ways among the groups of candidates, the voters and the associations, draw citizens' attention to electoral integrity, strengthen the awareness of anti-electoral corruption in society and uphold the credibility of the election.
The Branch Office of the CCAC is going to enhance the communication with the community, further citizens' understanding of integrity building, help carry out integrity education programmes and provide convenience for citizens to make enquiries, lodge complaints and report offences. The Branch Office in Taipa is expected to open in early 2009, so that the communication between the CCAC and the residents in Taipa will become easier.
Integrity building is very important and has a long way to go. To conclude, the CCAC will strive to fulfil its legal responsibilities, adjust its strategies according to social development and citizens' expectation and fight corruption so as to develop a corruption-free society with the citizens of Macao.
