Commission Against Corruption, Macao SAR

Despite that the worldwide effect of the novel coronavirus still did not reduce in 2021, fortunately, with the strong support of the central government, all citizens’ unity and mutual help and the Macao SAR Government’s persistence in taking actions to prevent and control epidemic, the economy and society got back to normal gradually. The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) was also able to implement every work plan for 2021 promptly and more smoothly.

Looking back, every task carried out and completed by the CCAC in 2021 has fully demonstrated that the CCAC has been maintaining its orderly and down-to-earth working style. In addition, it also sought change and innovation while learning new knowledge and following the path of goodness and kept on vitalising the integrity building of the Macao SAR.

Carrying out monitoring works related to the 7^th Legislative Assembly Elections of the Macao SAR was the main policy of the CCAC in 2021. Therefore, many resources were devoted to it. Starting from early 2021, the CCAC carried out a series of regular and occasional events to promote clean elections by stages as well as promotion and education actions on prevention of electoral corruption. An anti-electoral corruption task force was established and various platforms and channels were provided for citizens to lodge complaints or reports related to the elections. Since the period for submission of candidate lists start, the CCAC had been taking the initiative to inspect and monitor the places where electoral bribery was likely to occur. It issued warning in good faith against the acts on the verge of illegality or just stopped them right away. The CCAC strictly suppressed the illicit acts related to the elections, thus achieving the effect of all-round prevention and suppression beforehand, throughout the process and afterwards. In addition, in order to ensure sufficient human resources for the actions under this main policy, the CCAC mobilised efforts to complete the investigators recruitment process and training of the new recruits within a few months in an efficient way.

Apart from safeguarding the probity of the elections, in compliance with the law that confers the inherent competence upon the CCAC, it also proactively carried out and improved the works in the aspects of promotion and education, corruption fighting and ombudsmanship. Throughout the previous year, the CCAC continuously suppressed illegal or irregular acts involving financial aids and subsidies offered by the Government, managed to reach an agreement with the Office of the Court of Final Appeal to jointly carry out a study and development of a platform for sharing information about declaration of assets and interest. It continued to optimise the complaint management mechanism and the information system in order to fully implement the policy to encourage responsible identifiable complaints. Meanwhile, it centralised the handling of the ombudsman cases with the same objective in compliance with the principle of boosting efficiency and economic effectiveness. In addition, the CCAC also completed the comprehensive review of the “Integrity Management Plan – Protocol of Collaboration”, performed the duty of member of the International Ombudsman Institution (IOI) through various video conferences and cooperated with China in the review of the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

In line with the new direction of the “Second 100-Year Plan” of China, of which one of the objectives is to promote high quality development, the CCAC will put the most efforts in “innovation”. Informatisation and intellectualisation will be the main directions of the policies in the forthcoming year.

1. Innovation and transmission, integrity promoted by both the government and the public: Under the policy to promote the concept of “all for integrity”, apart from continuous dissemination of integrity awareness among individuals and in society, the CCAC will start performing the tasks in the 2^nd Five-Year Plan, especially revision of the contents of the “Integrity Management Plan – Protocol of Collaboration” in accordance with the principle of “innovation and transmission”, reorganisation and optimisation of the information platform of the “Integrity Management Plan”, development of an information platform for disciplinary procedures and review of the publications about the duty of integrity. Other regular tasks included commencing the actions of the “advisory group on teaching materials for integrity education”, re-editing the integrity education materials, sharpening the position of the two Branch Offices and organising creative contests on the theme of integrity which are suitable for young people. Internet and social media will be the resources to be fully exerted to carry out the promotion and education activities.
2. Internal cooperation and dispatch of investigators to conduct on-site inspection on a case-by-case basis: In order to implement the anti-corruption part of the 2^nd Five-Year Plan, internal cooperation between the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Ombudsman Bureau will be carried out in a timely and appropriate manner in some cases. Investigators of the two bureaus will be dispatched to conduct on-site monitoring or inspection simultaneously in order for better efficiency and result. In addition, no matter the cases fall within the area of anti-corruption or ombudsmanship, the CCAC has established the “retrospective review” mechanism for them with the aim to exert the supervisory power conferred by law at different levels. 
3. Supervision on both the public and private sectors and optimisation of the works related to assets and interests declaration: With adherence to the principle of “exercising the power in accordance with the law, exercising the power for people’s sake and managing the power in accordance with the law”, the CCAC will continuously supervise the integrity in the public and private sectors in order to ensure the Macao SAR as an incorruptible, fair and just environment. The CCAC will develop an inter-departmental information platform with innovative ideas; gradually optimise the operation procedures of assets and interests declaration at political and administrative levels. In line with the development of electronic governance, the CCAC will disclose the related data to the public in order to enhance the transparency of the SAR Government and effectively execute the relevant parts of the 2^nd Five-Year Plan.
4. Overall inspection and unified recommendation: The CCAC will fully exert its functions conferred by law and adopt different kinds of procedures in a flexible way in order to thoroughly investigate and analyse the factors and institutional problems that cause the relevant illegal or irregular situations. The CCAC will also try to centralise the handling of the ombudsman cases involving the same government department or those involving the issues in the same areas but different departments and render unified recommendation to all departments involved so that the SAR Government will be able to centralise the handling of the same kind of problems and thus achieve the objective to properly allocate public resources and solve the problems efficiently.
5. Strengthening the organic structure and professionalising the personnel: Externally, the CCAC will continue to maintain close connection and a good flow of exchange with the Chinese mainland, the neighbouring regions and other countries. Internally, it will intensify personnel training, informatisation, digitisation, systemisation and institutionalisation of the data related to complaints. It will also further optimise its organic structure and functions through law revision in order to achieve the goal of providing better service to the public and build up a stronger graft fighting team for the Macao SAR.

As everyone knows, it is the CCAC’s duty to monitor electoral activities. Safeguarding the integrity of the Legislative Assembly Elections is the priority of the CCAC’s tasks in 2021. Therefore, in 2021, apart from performing its statutory functions as usual, the CCAC also deployed a lot of manpower and resources on the mission to monitor the 7^th Legislative Assembly Elections.

Apart from the role as the watchdog of electoral activities, the CCAC is also the initiator of the actions to fight electoral corruption. As early as in 2020, the CCAC already drew up various plans and arranged preparatory actions, which were included in the Policy Address for the fiscal year 2021. The plans and actions were effectively implemented so that the CCAC could prevent and suppress acts of electoral corruption in a multipronged manner and fully commit itself to fight electoral corruption.

 

I. About the actions taken in relation to the elections

Before sending the troops, proper resources must be prepared. The CCAC attaches much importance to the cultivation of integrity awareness of the general public. Only if the preparatory work is well consolidated and if there is an effective implementation of the policy of “electoral corruption prevention and incorruptible population” will the posterior supervision be able to be conducted smoothly. Therefore, before the campaigns and activities related to the Legislative Assembly Elections started, in early 2021, the CCAC began to disseminate knowledge of clean elections among citizens and strengthen their awareness of safeguarding electoral probity through various types of promotion and education activities.

In order to further enhance the effectiveness of prior supervision, from the beginning of the period for submission of candidate lists running for the 7^th Legislative Assembly Elections of the Macao SAR, the CCAC proactively conducted on-site inspections and strictly suppressing various kinds of acts and activities that challenged the limits of law.

(1) Promotion and education actions and community relations on clean elections

As safeguarding the integrity of the Legislative Assembly Election was the CCAC’s prime task in 2021, the promotion and education for the year mainly featured promotion activities on clean elections, seeking to take the pre-emptive opportunities to instil the importance of electoral probity in citizens, enable them to understand the provisions under the electoral law and thus to prevent them from falling into the trap of electoral bribery. Meanwhile, the CCAC also kept on carrying out education and promotion activities on integrity for secondary and primary students and public and private entities in order to disseminate the concept of integrity and honesty to citizens.

Since March 2021, the CCAC had been launching various promotion activities on clean elections targeting at different walks of life, including the debate invitational on the theme of integrity, the city orienteering contest “Let’s Go for the Clean Elections”, “Mobile Streets Counters for Clean Elections in the Community 2021”, touring exhibition “Information on Clean Elections” and seminars on clean elections, so that the message of clean elections were spread to every corner of society through the general public’s participation in the events.

Apart from expanding the accessibility to the relevant information through various media and advertisements, the CCAC also launched the “Website on Clean Elections 2021” and promoted the laws and awareness of electoral bribery prevention on its official WeChat account so that citizens had easier and more detailed access to the information related to clean elections, making the information accessible in a all-round manner. Meanwhile, the CCAC also held prize quizzes on its official WeChat account in order to encourage the public to take the initiative to learn the information about clean elections by integrating the information into fun and easy games.

In order to sow the seeds of awareness of clean elections among the future voters, between March and June 2021, the CCAC held a drama tour entitled “Know More about Clean Elections” in 27 local secondary schools and tertiary institutions and invited junior primary students from 11 schools to participate in the special event “Children’s Day with William 2021 – Choose the Leader of Animals” held in the Branch Office. The two events were attended by over 5,000 students in total.

(2) Supervision on the elections

The CCAC spared no effort to perform the duty of supervision on the election. It adopted the two-pronged strategy stressing on both prevention and suppression.

The CCAC implemented the plans outlined in the Policy Address for the fiscal year 2021 and thus established an anti-electoral corruption task force and adopted technological means to grasp the up-to-date information about the elections at all times. From the formulation of anti-electoral corruption strategies at a macroscopic level to case-by-case instructions at a microscopic level, the CCAC applied the laws in a precise way. As a result, it effectively monitored the entire process of the elections, promptly rectified the practices carried out by certain associations that might violate the Electoral Law of the Legislative Assembly and ensured that the elections were held successfully.

Since 8^th March 2021, the CCAC introduced the function of lodging complaints and reports about violation of laws and rules related to the elections to the online complaint platform and launched a 24-hour hotline for complaints over electoral bribery in order to provide citizens with channels for enquiry and receive reports. Meanwhile, the CCAC maintained close contact with the Legislative Assembly Elections Affairs Management Committee and other competent entities thus maintaining an unobstructed communication channel for information about the elections, declaration of related activities, electoral propaganda and reports about illegality.

With a view to effectively carry out the monitoring works concerning the elections, the CCAC invited all candidate teams to the briefing sessions where their doubts were clarified, thus preventing illegal and irregular acts related to the elections.

Between the nomination period and the polling day, the CCAC carried out a total of 13,089 inspections in places with potential risk of electoral bribery, including catering establishments, venues of activities held by civic associations and street counters for electoral campaigns. In particular, 4,951 inspections were carried out on the cooling-off day and the polling day.

In addition, the CCAC processed 577 and 119 cases involving illegal electoral propaganda on the cooling-off day and the polling day respectively. Whenever problems were detected, the CCAC issued warning and rectified them right away. Once the CCAC detected any cases of suspected electoral corruption, it placed them on file for investigation immediately in order to fight corruption effectively with a two-pronged strategy emphasising both prevention and suppression and ensure the fairness, justice and integrity of the 7^th Legislative Assembly Election of the Macao SAR.

Since the beginning of the nomination period in early March, the CCAC has recorded a total of 532 complaints and inquiries (up to 15^th September), intercepted a total of 66 individuals and opened 25 criminal investigation files related to electoral illegalities and irregularities, of which three had relatively strong signs that they involved electoral irregularities, including electoral corruption and breach of the obligation of neutrality.

On the polling day, the CCAC received a total of 49 complaints and inquiries through the online complaint system, the hotline for complaint about the elections and the regular complaint hotline. The aforesaid data has demonstrated that the CCAC’s approach of all-round prevention and suppression beforehand, throughout the process and afterwards had achieved satisfactory effect.

 

II. Performance of regular duties

The significant duty to fight electoral corruption, which caused a sharp increase of workload in the year, did not hinder the CCAC in its efforts to perform its statutory functions consistently. In addition to the regular duties in the areas of promotion and education, anti-corruption and ombudsmanship, the CCAC did not spare any effort in the actions of external exchange and training.

(1) Promotion and education and community relations

In 2021 (up to 15^th September), the CCAC organised a total of 314 talks and seminars of various types, recording a total of 20,333 participants that mainly included public servants, employees of commercial firms, teenagers, students of tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools and kindergartens and ordinary citizens. Moreover, the CCAC kept on updating the “Webpage on Information about Integrity for Public Servants”. Meanwhile, in line with the trend of online learning advocated by the Government, the CCAC launched an online course entitled “Uphold Your Integrity” in cooperation with the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau. Featuring a few units, the course introduced the obligations and code of conduct that public servants should fulfil and abide by with a view to enhance their awareness of integrity and law observance through self-learning online.

In academic year 2020/2021, the CCAC, for the first time, held “Dissemination of Integrity in Schools” - Training of Teenage Ambassadors of Integrity and Practice Plan in Schools, which attracted a total of 87 participants from 13 schools. Between January and March 2021, the 87 teenage ambassadors carried out activities to promote integrity and honesty in schools in diversified forms including plays, orienteering activities, comics, micro movies and creative design of characters. The schools that participated in the activities recognised the effectiveness of the plan and they complimented the students’ enthusiasm.

(2) Anti-corruption duties

Up to 15^th September 2021, the CCAC placed 83 corruption cases on file for investigation, including 40 involving public departments or the public sector and 40 involving the private sector. The remaining involved personal affairs or other situations. Along with the cases carried forward from the previous year, the corruption cases still in the follow-up process totalled 121. As to the case investigation works, the CCAC succeeded in implementing the plans in the anti-corruption area outlined in the Policy Address for the previous year.

The implementation of the anti-corruption plans outlined in the Policy Address 2021 is summarised as follows:

1. Case investigation: Under the policy of “rigorous suppression of corruption and proper oversight of public fund” in 2021, the CCAC continued to conduct supervision in relation to typical bribery crimes involving public departments and the public and private sectors. In 2021, in addition to several typical passive bribery cases involving police officers and fraud cases involving forgery committed by public servants, the CCAC also uncovered an organised fraud case involving credit loans provided by several financial institutions. The criminal syndicate defrauded over loans from banks through illicit means, namely document forgery, involving 362 loan applications and 378 applicants, with an amount of around MOP776 million.
2. Oversight of public fund: The CCAC, for the first time, introduced on-site inspection carried out by anti-corruption and ombudsman personnel simultaneously on an experimental basis. Case-by-case inspections and supervisions were carried out on the grant of certain funds, thus achieving results in an efficient and effective manner.
3. About the private sector: The numbers of cases concluded and under investigation were similar to those recorded in 2020. The cases involving bribery in the private sector in 2021 were, to a certain extent, related to employees seeking job opportunities and promotion and securing their jobs. Through the investigation into such cases, the CCAC strived to prevent the growth of such trend.
4. “Retrospective review” mechanism in the anti-corruption area: The CCAC has applied the “retrospective review” mechanism to case investigation. According to the respective situations in the cases, the CCAC took the initiative to follow up the progress and results of the disciplinary procedures against the public servants who had allegedly committed disciplinary offense. At the same time, the CCAC also took the initiative to discuss with the departments where the cases occurred how to plug the loopholes in order to effectively integrate suppression with prevention with a view to join hands with them to build an anti-corruption system through the approach “to explore the law and prevent corruption through cases”.
5. Building of the graft fighting team: In order to enhance the development of its team, the CCAC efficiently completed all procedures of the recruitment and training of 15 investigators. As soon as the new recruits completed the training course in late July 2021, they took part in the supervision on the elections and the regular investigative works, thus new blood has been injected into the investigator team of the CCAC. 
6. External cooperation in investigation: As the external cooperation in investigation almost stopped in 2020 due to the pandemic, it still did not resume as normal as it did before the pandemic, but the rebound and development were positive. For instance, in April and May 2021, the National Supervisory Commission dispatched personnel to accompany those of provincial-level supervisory agencies to carry out cooperation in investigation in Macao. The action was completed successfully with the assistance of the CCAC, thus achieving good results.

(3) Ombudsman actions

In 2021, the CCAC persisted with its pragmatic attitude and continuously exercised the powers and functions vested by the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption within the terms of office of the ombudsman to verify the facts of each case in an impartial, unbiased, objective and prudent manner. Instead of just resolving superficial problems, the CCAC attached importance to investigating the causes of the problems in an in-depth way, particularly on deep-rooted issues such as whether there were inadequacies in the administrative system and the general legality and rationality of relevant administrative acts.

Up to 15^th September 2021, a total of 171 inquiries were placed on file by the Ombudsman Bureau of the CCAC. Along with the cases carried forward from the previous year, there were 202 inquiries which were still being followed up by the Ombudsman Bureau.

1. Work related to case investigations: In accordance with the plan of the Policy Address for the year 2021, the CCAC attached great importance to the principles of efficiency and economy. For cases which were concerned by the citizens and were closely related to their interests, the CCAC would, in the course of supervision, put together such cases with those handled by the Ombudsman Bureau that were still in the follow-up process and that had the same objectives for handling. Such cases involved livelihood issues, including an inquiry concerning the case for the handling of the punishment process of the problem of water dripping from the air-conditioners by the Municipal Affairs Bureau and a comprehensive investigation concerning the investigation report on the fire shutters of Edifício do Bairro da Ilha Verde. Moreover, the CCAC put together 28 inquiries involving illegal works and completed the first phase of such investigation work in the form of comprehensive investigation. It issued holistic improvement opinions to the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau and urged the bureau to exercise the corresponding powers and shoulder the responsibilities vested by the Legal Regime of Urban Construction. In other cases handled by the Ombudsman Bureau which involved issues such as the management problems of private buildings, the CCAC clarified its position in every case through suggestions or recommendations according to the law so as to urge the respective departments to take necessary measures and avoid administrative illegalities and impropriety in order to perform the duties of the SAR Government based on the people and in compliance with the law.
2. Measures related to responsible complaints or reports: In 2020, upon imposing a series of concrete measures related to encouraging citizens to lodge real-name complaints or reports such as education and publicity programmes, informatisation of the complaint system, in-person notification and communication, explanation and clarification, the CCAC persistently paid attention to relevant data and reviewed it in the first half of 2021. When it was found that the proportion (43.1%) of anonymous complaints received in the first half of 2021 increased compared to the proportion (34.6%) of those received in the same period of 2020, the CCAC immediately conducted a comprehensive analysis on the data. It was found that since the CCAC stepped up efforts to encourage citizens to lodge complaints or reports through the online complaint system due to safeguarding the objectives of clean election in March 2021, there was a significant increase in the proportion of lodging complaints through this channel, up from 38.8% in the same period of 2020 to 65.7% in 2021, of which most complaints were lodged anonymously.

   In view of this situation, the CCAC responded immediately at the beginning of the second half year by introducing an immediate enquiry service on the fundamental progress of the complaints or reports to the online complaint system so as to arouse the awareness of the citizens to lodge responsible complaints. Starting from 1^st July 2021, all complainants or reporters were provided with online enquiry codes. However, as an incentive, only real-name complainants were able to obtain relatively more information on the progress. In addition, regarding the cases which were still being followed up on 1^st July 2021, the CCAC also included them in the aforementioned facilitation mechanism and subsequently issued the online enquiry codes to the natural persons who have lodged complaints or reports under real names. While seeking the balance of the principle of confidentiality, the CCAC provided the maximal convenience to the citizens so that they were able to inquire about the fundamental progress of the online complaints or reports anytime and anywhere.

3. “Retrospective review” mechanism in the area of ombudsman’s actions: In the course of exercising the “retrospective review” mechanism, the CCAC persistently carried out the investigation work openly or privately and closely followed up the public departments or bodies included in the list of “retrospective review” in 2021 (i.e. those which had been given recommendations or suggestions) for their work in the improvement of relevant issues. If necessary, the CCAC would keep in contact with and give feedback to those departments. Such work included the clarity of explanation on matters relating to the fine by the Traffic Department of the Public Security Police Force to the citizens and the intensity of supervision on the identification of the exterior of casino buses by the Transport Bureau. Moreover, the CCAC also continued to list socially concerned issues as important cases to be followed up in order to address the pressing needs of the citizens. Subsequently, cases relevant to livelihood issues and the concerned departments were included in the list of “retrospective review”. The CCAC will track the follow-up work done by the relevant departments.
4. Promotion of inter-departmental collaboration: For cases concerning vital public interests or requiring inter-departmental cooperation, it can be seen from the cases handled by the CCAC in 2021 that despite there were laws to follow, the public departments that had to put in much efforts to promote inter-departmental collaboration mainly involved the area of public works. For certain cases placed on comprehensive investigation that involved public interests and were particularly concerned by the public, when the CACC submitted the reports to the Chief Executive according to the law, it also stated that inter-departmental collaboration was still the key to resolve the problems related to efficiency and effectiveness of public administration by the SAR Government. Without doubt, currently, some public departments or bodies are bound by the laws and regulations to carry out inter-departmental collaboration. Whether it is operational merely depends on whether the departments can reach consensus and resolve the technical issues among themselves. However, under the circumstances that there is no law that expressly stipulates the permission or requirement to carry out inter-departmental collaboration, the differences among different Public Administration departments in terms of powers and functions, operation and administrative management have all along been a main obstacle that retards inter-departmental collaboration. The SAR Government has an undeniable responsibility to promote inter-departmental collaboration in order to enhance the effectiveness of the Government’s policy. It should also commit itself to developing inter-departmental collaboration among public departments and bodies from the perspectives of law, administration and thoughts of leadership.
5. Review of “Integrity Management Plan – Protocol of Collaboration”: In 2021, the CCAC thoroughly reviewed the work of “Integrity Management Plan – Protocol of Collaboration” in order to lay a foundation for the “Integrity Management Plan – Innovation and Transmission” which is intended to be launched in accordance with the 2^nd Five-Year Plan.
6. Study of the possibility of cooperation between the anti-graft and the auditing areas: The CCAC is still actively studying the possibility of cooperation between the anti-graft and the auditing areas.

(4) External exchanges and cooperation

In 2021, under the full support of the Central Government and the circumstance that the pandemic has subsided, the Macao SAR smoothly resumed cross-boundary travel with the Chinese mainland. The CCAC also seized the opportunities to actively liaise with the counterpart bodies and departments in the Chinese mainland and conducted different exchange and reciprocal activities in the Greater Bay Area. In January and February 2021, under the leadership of the Commissioner Against Corruption, the delegation of the CCAC visited the nine municipalities of the Guangdong province in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Despite visiting the Guangdong Provincial Commissions for Discipline Inspection and Supervision and other municipal Commissions for Discipline Inspection and Supervision for deepening the liaison and cooperation between both parties, the CCAC also conducted a study tour at the education bases for anti-corruption and other enterprises which served as role models for integrity in the nine municipalities of Guangdong province.

Moreover, the CCAC also actively established a close relationship of cooperation with the counterparts of Hong Kong. On 18^th February 2021, the Commissioner Against Corruption led the leadership of the CCAC to meet the Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hong Kong, Simon Peh Yun-lu and other representatives by videoconferencing where they exchanged views on the work of integrity building of Macao and Hong Kong and judicial assistance. Both parties discussed deepening the cooperation between the two places.

In 2021, the CCAC persistently kept a good communication with other countries and regions and actively carried out the duties performed as a member of international associations. Given that the situation of the pandemic remained severe around the world, the CCAC complied with the arrangement of the international associations to attend meetings, conferences and training courses online. In May 2021, the CCAC participated in different international meetings by videoconferencing including the Asian Regional Meeting of IOI, and the IOI General Assembly and World Meeting 2021. In addition, the CCAC also assigned its staff to participate in quite many online seminars and workshops, which not only successfully promoted the exchanges with the individuals of other countries and regions, but also strengthened the training of the staff of the CCAC and widened their horizons.

(5) Optimisation of the operation and internal management of the CCAC

Under the policy of unity and efforts, the CCAC has never ceased the pace of internal innovation. It carried out the work plan of personnel recruitment training in 2021. In the area of informatisation, the CCAC even exceeded the targets originally set in 2021 and greatly improved the internal and external information systems in order to adequately fulfil the requirement of the policy and rapidly respond to the demand of the citizens, the society and the internal staff.

1. Persistently optimise the internal information system: In order to be in line with the SAR Government to implement the policy of electronic governance, in 2021, the CCAC not only continued to develop the information system, optimise the internal database which has already been set up and integrated since 2020, standardise the document and case management system and the electronic case file system, but also improved the webpage of the CCAC as planned. By the end of 2021, the CCAC will introduce some facilitation functions to citizens, including the online appointment for lodging in-person complaints or reports and the online appointment for submitting the Declaration of Assets and Interests. Such work has successfully achieved the objectives of the Policy Address for last year.
2. Continuously review and improve the complaint system: In 2021, the CCAC further improved the complaint management mechanism by consolidating its strength and seeking innovation. Since 1^st June 2021, the CCAC has ceased the functions of receiving complaint or report e-mails and has encouraged the citizens to lodge complaints or reports personally, by phone, online or by mail so as to ensure the receiving of such information and its smooth follow-up.
3. Continuously develop the digital system: In 2021, the CCAC gradually built an internal consultation database and spared itself in the professionalism and informatisation of the complaint management mechanism and the specialisation of the staff responsible for receiving and managing complaints. It is hoped that by performing the statutory duties and strictly adhering to the principle of confidentiality, the CCAC is able to enhance the transparency of the work and provide facilitation measures to the public.
4. Persistently carry out the study of law revision: In order to carry out the revision work of the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption and the Organisation and Operation of the Service of the Commission Against Corruption, upon forming the legal reform task force of relevant legal regimes in 2020, the CCAC has all along been studying and discussing on such work in 2021 and has also liaised with the legal affairs department. The CCAC is persistently working on the comparison and study of relevant regimes and provisions and seeks to submit the law revision to the legislative departments for discussion in 2022.

In January 2021, the SAR Government prepared the 2^nd Five-Year Plan upon concluding the first Five-Year Plan. The 2^nd Five-Year Plan seeks to connect the “National 14^th Five-Year Plan” and the long-range objectives through the year 2035. Therefore, when the CCAC drafted the 2^nd Five-Year Plan in the area of anti-corruption, it took into the full consideration of the development directions of the country and the objectives of the policies and measures of the SAR Government. It will implement the planned policies and measures step by step, rationally and according to the plan year by year.

 

I. Publicity, education and community relations

Regarding the development directions of the 2^nd Five-Year Plan put forward by the CCAC, in 2022, the CCAC will continue to aim for the target of “all for integrity” for publicity and education and will persistently promote integrity and honesty to the society of Macao. Through diversified publicity activities which will be catered to the livelihood of the citizens, the CCAC will aim to instil the values of honesty and integrity into every stratum of the society. In addition, by making good use of the partnership established with the education sector, the public departments and the private sector over the years, the CCAC will seek to cooperate with them in order to jointly work out appropriate integrity plans and activities ahead.

(1)“Integrity Management Plan – Innovation and Transmission”

In order to promote to the public and private sectors to exercise the standardisation, regularisation and self-discipline of their own integrity management work, the CCAC has comprehensively reviewed the execution and effectiveness of the previously implemented “Integrity Management Plan”, and has collected the practices and opinions from different departments and the difficulties met during implementation so as to conclude their experiences and improve the plan. Meanwhile, to tie in with the country’s theme of “promoting high-quality development”, the CCAC believes that it is time to improve the content of the original plan and the way of collaboration in order to consolidate the effect of the plan and further enhance its effectiveness. The CCAC tends to reshape the “Integrity Management Plan” by way of informatisation and digitisation and renames it “Integrity Management Plan - Innovation and Transmission”. The plan, which will serve as a long-term work plan for the 2^nd Five-Year Plan, will be officially launched in 2022.

The original “Integrity Management Plan” seeks to, through the strengthening of the prevention work of the regime, encourage the departments to build systematic prevention and education mechanisms, strengthen the integrity management of the departments and reduce the opportunities of illegal acts such as corruption. Such plan mainly involves the ethical management of the staff of the departments and the operation of the departments and encourages the departments to formulate their own corruption prevention mechanisms in order to notify the CCAC on disciplinary offenses and duty-related crimes once existed.

In the “Integrity Management Plan - Innovation and Transmission”, the CCAC intends to seek improvement in these aspects, including the positioning of the plan, the cooperation mechanism, the training and the collection of opinions. The first phase of the work will start in 2022. Based on the original plan, the CCAC will firstly strengthen the liaison with different Public Administration departments and consolidate the cooperation among the departments in terms of integrity management. The following plans will be launched:

1. Relaunch the plan and sign the protocol of collaboration, update the guidelines on integrity and promote the electronic platform for resource sharing

In the new “Integrity Management Plan”, the CCAC tends to expand the coverage of the work of integrity education and guidelines to the public enterprises, the public enterprises that are mainly public funded, the concessionaires of public departments and public property. In addition, emphasis will be put on the relationships of collaboration and communication with different government departments and officials. Therefore, according to the plan, the CCAC will invite the public departments/ institutions to sign the new protocols again. It will also rearrange and optimise the relevant information platform so as to provide more convenient and efficient channels to the participating departments for obtaining information, urge and support the departments to initiate and put more emphasis on building their own integrity management culture, take advanced precautionary measures and make concerted efforts to further raise the standard of the governance of the SAR Government.

2. Establish the mechanism of the “Coordinators for integrity affairs”

In order to routinely cooperate with the departments to reinforce integrity management, the CCAC will establish the mechanism of the “Coordinators for integrity affairs” in the plan so that the departments will be able to promote such plan in a top-down way, establish and implement the corruption prevention mechanisms more concretely in the departments/ institutions. Moreover, such plan will also enable the CCAC to know about the integrity management and corruption prevention measures of different departments such that improvement suggestions can be timely provided and the transparency and fairness of the public administration can also be enhanced.

Thus, the CCAC will timely put forward corresponding support measures, such as holding workshops for the “Coordinators for integrity affairs” and information exchange meetings so that the persons-in-charge can have more references when launching such work. The CCAC will also reconstruct the relevant webpage and establish the “Online zone for integrity management” so that the coordinators will be able to obtain relevant information on training sessions and workshops organised by the CCAC. Depending on the progress of the pandemic, the CCAC will examine the feasibility to lead the “Coordinators for integrity affairs” to conduct a study tour so that different departments of the SAR Government will be able to learn about the integrity development and the transparency in government affairs of the territories outside Macao. It is believed that the Macao SAR can optimise its internal integrity work by drawing the experiences from the visiting territories.

3. Establish the information platform for disciplinary procedures

In order to fully perform the duties of following up the disciplinary procedures vested by Subparagraph 7) of Article 4 of the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption, the CCAC will reconstruct an information platform for disciplinary procedures. According to the protocol of this plan, the public departments shall notify the CCAC of any circumstances and decisions concerning disciplinary procedures in a proactive and holistic way in order to carry out the duty of integrity as a public department, rather than report relevant acts arbitrarily.

Moreover, the CCAC also intends to regularise the form of notification through the filling in of the form, in a hope to further reinforce the management of the information of the disciplinary procedures being notified and perform the duty of supervision. The CCAC will also timely follow up the correction work in relation to the disciplinary procedures carried out by the Public Administration departments.

4. Review of the publications about the duty of integrity

Over the past years, the CCAC issued publications on anti-corruption guidelines for public servants and the private sector, such as the Guidelines on the Professional Ethics and Conduct of Public Servants, the Guidelines on handling gifts received on festive occasions by the staff of public departments and the Corruption Prevention Tips for Public Companies. However, with the development and change of the society, some of the publications are no longer applicable and there is a need for improvement. Thus, the CCAC will revise and improve the content of the publications based on the practical experiences drawn from the Anti-corruption and the Ombudsman Bureaus so as to ensure the spirit of integrity and uprightness can be rightly disseminated.

Moreover, the CCAC will still persistently organise different kinds of seminars, routine talks and activities in order to make the new “Integrity Management Plan” widely known to different public departments or bodies of the SAR Government and will do its upmost to seek their support.

(2)“All for Integrity – Citizens and public departments”

With the aim to promote the concept of “to act with virtue, to live with integrity”, the CCAC will sustain its efforts in integrity education at different levels of the society. In the long-term promotion plan “All for Integrity”, the publicity and education for the year 2022 will be focused on citizens and public departments. The “Integrity Management Plan – Innovation and Transmission” mainly targets at public departments, which, however, aim at serving citizens, who, always expect that they can safeguard their own interests through the Ombudsman of the CCAC. The citizens hope that the regime of the Ombudsman can help resolve their problems completely, but their knowledge to such regime is limited such that they lose confidence in the CCAC because they think that “the results of their complaints may not always be satisfied to them”. In such cases, they may even lose the chances to obtain enforceable or binding decisions to resolve their problems within effective time through other means vested by the law such as lodging objections, administrative or judicial appeals.

Therefore, the CCAC will strengthen the publicity about ombudsman actions performed by the CCAC to the citizens, namely the objectives and its scope of application. It will also explain to the citizens how to make good use of the complaint mechanism to resolve their problems so that they will be able to understand the concrete functions of the Ombudsman of the CCAC as a supervisor.

Regarding its regular promotion work, the CCAC will strive to achieve the objectives through the following specific measures:

(1) Collaborating with the education sector so that integrity education will better cater to the needs of young people

In the end of 2021, the CCAC will endeavour to organise a “panel of advisors for teaching materials on integrity” and recruit serving teachers from non-tertiary education institutions to become members who will provide suitable lesson plans for the CCAC. These teachers will also try teaching the lesson plans and teaching materials compiled by the CCAC so that the relevant teaching resources may better cater to teaching needs and the needs of students, which may improve teachers’ motivation of using those resources.

To continuously play its role as a partner in integrity education, in 2022 the CCAC will continue to improve the cooperation mode for the “panel of advisors for teaching materials on integrity”. It will gather the opinions and suggestions from the education sector and publish integrity education teaching kids for lower primary students so that the teaching materials for primary schools of the CCAC will further apply to lower primary pupils. It will also launch more teaching resources and activities on integrity that cater to the growth of young people, which will help them develop correct values as soon as possible.

In addition, the CCAC will organise “the 2^nd Integrity Lesson Plan Design Collection Activity”, through which it may collect lesson plans, help promote the development of integrity education among non-tertiary education institutions and encourage the education sector to attach more importance to integrity education.

(2) Teaching materials characterised by stories for promoting the messages of integrity among families

The CCAC attaches great importance to integrity education for teenagers and children. Over the years it has been proactively launching various types of teaching materials and resources, including a series of puppet shows on honesty and law-abidingness for lower primary students who participate in “New Generation of Integrity” – Education Programme on Honesty for Primary Students. The CCAC plans to re-edit part of the puppet show materials and stories and compile them into books. Through illustrations, voice acting and vivid guided reading, these parent-child reading materials that come with sounds and graphics are expected to spread the messages of integrity from the integrity education base to families, so parents may join hands to bring up an honest and righteous new generation for Macao.

(3) Tying in with the positioning of the Branch Office in Taipa to spread the messages of integrity in the community

The CCAC’s Branch Office in Taipa will be re-positioned after renovation so it may better play its role in promoting integrity education in the community. Unlike the Branch Office in Areia Preta that targets at primary school students, the Branch Office in Taipa is slated to be an integrity education base for young people and civic associations. Through its targeted promotion activities and new multi-media exhibition facilities, the branch office is expected to make integrity education better cater to the needs of young people. The Branch Office in Taipa will also actively reach out to the community to strengthen communication with the residents in the district, which will deepen their understanding of the work of the fight against corruption and further foster a probity culture in the islands.

(4)	Organising creative activities on integrity and honesty to encourage young people to exert positive influence on others

The young generation is one of the main targets in the promotion of integrity education by the CCAC. Considering that young people are creative and innovative, the CCAC will organise a video competition in 2022 to allow them to proactively reflect on the topic of integrity in the hope that the messages of probity and honesty will take root in their minds. Through videos they have created, young people may share their thoughts on honesty and integrity with the public and influence their peers. It is hoped that the young generation will participate in promoting integrity and actively unleash their potential in integrity building of the Macao SAR.

(5) Making good use of volunteers to encourage them to participate in the community’s activities

The Integrity Volunteer Team has been sparing no effort in supporting the integrity education work of the CCAC. At present, there are more than 200 active members in the team.

In 2022, the CCAC will continue to encourage the volunteer team to give play to their strengths. In addition to mobilising the volunteers to assist in the integrity promoting activities, the CCAC will also organise them to take part in more community service and charity activities, which not only promotes the awareness of integrity but also sends out more positive vibes to the society.

(6) Valuing both new and traditional media and promoting integrity education for all

Internet and social media may deliver the messages of integrity to the public directly and more profoundly. However, to a certain extent, people still get in contact with other promotion channels such as traditional media and advertisement. The CCAC will, according to the information to be disseminated, choose appropriate channels, such as social platforms, WeChat, Internet and themed webpages, complemented by various traditional promotion channels, including electronic media, advertisements and columns as well as the production of publications and promotional items, so as to cater to the public’s different habits of receiving information. It is hoped that the information on integrity will be fully promoted to all sectors of the community and residents will develop the awareness of integrity and law-abidingness in their daily life.

 

II. Anti-corruption actions

Similar to core of the thinking of President Xi Jinping, that is, “comprehensive rule of law and people-centered approach”, the CCAC has all along been adhering to the principle of “exercising the power in accordance with the law, exercising the power for people’s sake and managing the power in accordance with the law”, adopting a zero tolerance attitude towards criminal activities involving corruption, fighting them resolutely, investigating all cases received, holding those who violate the law accountable and attaching equal importance to the public sector and the private sector so as to ensure clean governance of the Macao SAR Government as well as a fair and just business environment of the Macao SAR.

In 2022, to tie in with the Macao SAR’s policy direction of integration into national development, the CCAC will actively adopt measures to prevent and fight corruption at different levels through innovative and computerised means:

(1) Making all-out efforts to safeguard an upright environment

The SAR Government determines to attain Macao’s unique position as “one centre, one platform and one base” and strives to enrich the essence and industries of the city as a world centre of tourism and leisure. In the process, distribution and redistribution of interests arising from traditional, emerging and even leading industries may give rise to different levels of corruption or irregularities. The CCAC, as a supervisory body, will actively carry out prevention work and fight them within the scope of their functions and competences. It will do its best to ensure that the economy of the Macao SAR is developed in a fair, impartial and upright environment.

It is widely known that the concession contracts for the operation of games of fortune in the Macao SAR will expire in June 2022. The Macao SAR Government will once again carry out the work related to the public tender for the award of exclusive concession contracts. As the lead industry of the economy of the Macao SAR, the gaming sector is involved in the long-term development planning for the Macao SAR as well as the redistribution of huge interests. Therefore, while the Macao SAR Government prepares for the launch of consultation as well as studies of and amendments to the respective legislation, the CCAC, as a supervisory body, must actively carry out studies on the respective prevention systems within the scope of their functions and competences, so as to avoid possible situations of corruption or irregularities that may appear in the tender process for the award of concessions and do its best to ensure that the tender process is carried out in a fair, impartial and upright environment.

(2) Sending investigators to monitor cases in person or carrying out inspection

Based on the practical experience obtained in 2021, the CCAC will continue to adopt viable measures to send investigators to monitor cases in person or inspect for appropriate cases in 2022. In order to achieve greater efficiency and better results, on-the-spot inspection will even be conducted by investigators from the Anti-Corruption Bureau and those from the Ombudsman Bureau simultaneously for the purpose of carrying out investigation.

In addition, the CCAC will also strengthen the systems of sending investigators to monitor cases in person and to carry out inspection in the process of integrity building of the Macao SAR. It will make arrangement and adjustment in a timely and appropriate manner, particularly at the levels of systems, manpower, material resources and budgets.

(3)“Retrospective review” in the fight against corruption

Regarding Public Administration services where cases of corruption have occurred, or services or bodies that are closely related to significant economic interests, in addition to investigating and dealing with the criminal cases in question, the CCAC will also review the follow-up situations of the services through the “retrospective review” system, including verifying whether workers involved in cases have already been subject to disciplinary actions and whether problems of the services revealed in cases have been fully rectified or improved.

In 2022, the CCAC will continue to implement the “retrospective review” system in its work of fighting against corruption, particularly by combining and taking advantage of the data obtained through the information platform for disciplinary procedures to be developed by the “Integrity Management Plan - Innovation and Transmission”, which is expected to strengthen the follow-up efforts in this area.

(4) On declaration of assets and interests

In order to respond to the aspirations of the public on the supervision of workers of the Macao SAR Government and to be in line with the development of electronic governance, the CCAC strives to improve the mechanism for the Declaration of Assets and Interests. In addition to continuously optimising the internal system for the Declaration of Assets and Interests, the CCAC, according to the 2^nd Five-Year Plan, will also collaborate with the Office of President of the Court of Final Appeal in activating the database so as to strengthen exchange and adequate information sharing, which aims to enable a faster and simpler execution of the work within the scope of the Declaration of Assets and Interests. It is one of the important work plans of the CCAC.

Based on the results achieved in 2021, the CCAC will, in 2022, continue to actively promote the work of creating an information sharing platform related to the Declaration of Assets and Interests with the Office of the President of the Court of Final Appeal, which aims to strengthen exchange of necessary information between both parties in the aspect of the Declaration of Assets and Interests and to increase the work efficiency.

In addition, the CCAC will strengthen promotion and awareness-raising actions for public servants and other declarants, continuously providing the necessary lectures or clarification sessions on the Declaration of Assets and Interests, so that the individuals concerned may consciously and actively facilitate the implementation of the Declaration of Assets and Interests regime. Full use of the “notification processing system of the Declaration of Assets and Interests” will be promoted among public departments in order to be in line with the development of e-governance. The respective data will also be disclosed to the public in a timely and appropriate manner so as to increase the transparency of the Macao SAR Government.

(5) External exchange and cooperation for the fight against corruption

In 2022, the CCAC will actively promote various exchange activities with the National Supervisory Commission and the neighbouring regions for the fight against corruption and is planning to revise the Corruption Prevention Guide for SMEs in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in due course with the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong SAR.

In order to ensure that the quality of the CCAC’s investigators and their investigation abilities keep abreast with the times, the CCAC is also, based on its good exchange relationships with the Chinese mainland and other regions developed in recent years, planning to send staff to participate in targeted training courses organised by anti-corruption or vocational education institutions in different regions.

The CCAC will continue to cooperate with China in the review of the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and to pragmatically fulfil its duties as a member of various international organisations. It will actively participate in international conferences, seminars and workshops to strengthen exchanges with counterparts from other countries and regions and to maintain good relations with them, so they will, hand in hand, cope with the challenges and adversities that the world has been encountering and make the world fairer, more impartial and corruption-free.

 

III. Ombudsman actions

The CCAC, who also carries out ombudsman actions, will continue to pay attention to the positive expectations and well-intentioned comments of residents for the Macao SAR Government. If the rights, freedoms, safeguards and legitimate interests of residents are undermined due to the activities of the services of the Public Administration, legal persons governed by public law, public companies or public companies that are mainly public funded or concessionaires of public departments or public property, the CCAC will carry out investigation work within the scope of ombudsman’s power according to the law, in order to bring justice to residents and seek fair methods and solutions to address residents’ problems, thus promoting legality, reasonableness and adequacy of the practice of administrative acts.

In addition to the daily work of investigating and following up administrative complaints, the Ombudsman Bureau of the CCAC will also, in 2022, strengthen its supervision and facilitate the relevant promotion so as to deepen residents’ correct understanding of the ombudsman’s work. The plans are as follows:

(1) Performing the comprehensive investigation functions

Regarding cases that fall within the ombudsman’s work and are widely concerned by the public or involve significant public interest, the CCAC will further review them in 2022, so that cases subject to inquiries that meet the conditions may gradually be converted into those to be subject to comprehensive investigation, which means it may look into and analyse the causes of illegality and irregularity arising from the legal regimes and try to find, in terms of legal regimes or the operation of Public Administration services or bodies, the aspects that should be corrected or can be improved, thus ensuring, according to the law, that the governance of the Macao SAR will be more prudent and rigorous.

(2) Strengthening inspection functions on cases

In order to give full play to the CCAC’s monitoring function and better fulfil the responsibilities conferred by law, the Ombudsman Bureau will adopt the policy of “specific methods for specific cases” in 2022, so as to strengthen internal communication and cooperation with the Anti-Corruption Bureau or to carry out on-site inspection with investigators from the Anti-Corruption Bureau simultaneously. The two bureaus will jointly implement the work plans of the 2^nd Five-Year Plan.

(3) Studying the possibility of creating a “unified recommendation” mechanism

The CCAC will study how to optimise the ways of handling ombudsman cases, particularly the feasibility of centralising the handling of ombudsman cases involving the same government department or those involving issues in the same areas but different departments and render unified recommendations to all departments involved, so that the Macao SAR Government can better distribute public resources in a more efficient and targeted way to solve the respective problems.

(4) Replies to real-name complaints

According to the objective data for the year 2021, the CCAC still needs to further consolidate the correct and responsible awareness of residents of filing reports.  The CCAC will continue to strengthen and optimise the online services for making enquiries on complaint handling progress so that residents who file real-name complaints or reports may be provided with more information, thus increasing public confidence in the work of the CCAC.

(5)“Retrospective review” mechanism of the Ombudsman Bureau

The work related to retrospective review is one of the indispensable activity plans of the Ombudsman Bureau for 2022 as well as the 2^nd Five-Year Plan. Repeated inspections, whether periodical or not, may achieve the effects of continuous supervision, which makes the Macao SAR Government and the competent services constantly improve their work and effectively respond to the reasonable requests of residents.

In 2022, socially concerned livelihood issues will also be included as an important category in the list of “retrospective review”, which also adheres to the “people-based” policy of the Macao SAR Government.

 

IV. External affairs

To better integrate into the overall development of the country, actively participate in the development of the Great Bay Area, strengthen exchanges in law enforcement and cooperation in personnel training with the Chinese mainland and fight corruption together are the paths to be resolutely pursued by the CCAC in 2022 and also an important part of the CCAC’s work in the area of external relations for the coming year. The CCAC will continue to promote close relations with its counterpart services in the Chinese mainland and neighbouring regions, such as the National Commissions for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, Guangdong Provincial Commissions for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, the Commissions for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of the cities of the Greater Bay Area, the Independent Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong (ICAC) and other counterparts in the Greater Bay Area.

In addition, there will be periodic reciprocal visits and exchange activities, which aims to actively promote and establish a complete integrity plan as well as strengthen and refine cooperation proposals with different regions. The CCAC will strive to build a society that values integrity along with the Chinese mainland and the neighbouring regions as well as maintain an upright and corruption-free environment to ensure steadfast and successful implementation of “One Country, Two Systems” of the Macao SAR.

With regard to staff training, the CCAC will, under a stable epidemic situation, plan to cooperate with the relevant services in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. It will send staff there to receive training and to invite experts and scholars from the relevant areas to teach in Macao in order to enhance the knowledge and professional skills of its staff.

In addition, in 2022, the CCAC plans to organise secondary and university students in Macao to visit the education bases of different scales for anti-corruption and integrity promotion located in the cities in the Greater Bay Area. It aims to strengthen integrity education, allows Macao students to better understand the current situation and development of anti-corruption work and deepen their understanding of the national situation of the motherland.

 

V. Building and optimisation of internal management

In 2022, the CCAC will further optimise the organisation and operation of the Complaint Management Centre and strengthen reception skill training for staff so as to provide residents with better complaint reception service. It also intends to study the development of an internal database system for queries in the areas of the fight against corruption and the ombudsman’s actions, which aims to, through information technology, integrate statistical data and information that the CCAC has accumulated from its consultation service over the years, so that the Complaint Management Centre can respond and clarify the questions and doubts of the residents more efficiently.

In order to be in line with the direction of long-term development of integrity building, the CCAC, in 2021, started to review the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region and the Organisation and Operation of the Service of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region, seriously considered the CCAC’s development direction in terms of its organisation structure, competences and functions, the career regime and ranks applicable to its investigators, the forms of connection with the Public Administration, remuneration and benefits,  etc. The CCAC intends to present the draft law to the competent bodies in 2022, seeking to start the process of reviewing the law that aims to optimise the organisation and operation of the service.

  

“Those who govern their country well solve the problems in a timely manner and will not let them evolve into serious ones”. Constantly adapting to the new demands of governance of modern society, introducing innovations and increasing the efficiency of the administration of the Macao SAR Government have become dominant trends. Compliance with the law is even a fundamental principle of governance of the Macao SAR Government. In the scope of the work of the ombudsman, the CCAC of Macao plays the role of a watchdog and a promoter simultaneously, As such, it needs to maintain the mindset of “not giving in to adversities and always serving the people” and point out the SAR Government’s inadequacies. At the same time, it needs to act with a virtuous attitude and bear in mind that “blind criticism” should not be the ultimate goal - encouraging the Macao SAR Government to address inadequacies and correct them should be the benchmark of the CCAC in the performance of ombudsman functions.

With regard to the fight against corruption, the CCAC of Macao must always maintain a righteous attitude and combat crimes. “A country will become powerful when laws and orders are executed effectively, and it will be weakened if this is not the case”. It is necessary to strictly enforce the law and leave no room for compromise, so as to ensure that the Macao society operates smoothly in an upright and fair environment.

Unlike anti-corruption services in other regions, the CCAC of Macao performs two functions that are completely different and therefore understands that it is charged with a heavy responsibility. As such, it will perform its duties diligently in the future and build on its past efforts to continue to keep abreast with the times, tie in with the trend of innovation, look for internal incentives, value both quantity and quality and faithfully fulfil its legal functions, so as to urge government officials to do their best and bring offenders to justice.