I. Anti-corruption

In 2022, the CCAC detected a corruption case involving a former leader of the former Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau. Moreover, it did not slow down the pace of investigating other cases despite the pandemic. Up to 30^th September 2022, the CCAC concluded 60 cases in the anti-corruption area, of which 40 were related to the public sector and 20 to the private sector, which showed that it has spared no effort in safeguarding the integrity environment of Macao according to the objectives of the policy address in a pragmatic manner. The implementation of the relevant work is summarised as follows:

1. Case investigation: in 2022, the CCAC detected a case of passive bribery and money laundering allegedly committed by a former leader of the former Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau. Despite that the case covered a long time span and the person involved already retired for a few years, the CCAC did not give up and successfully detected the case. This demonstrated the indomitable resilience and perseverance of the CCAC.

   The CCAC also investigated some cases relevant to the SAR Government’s pandemic prevention and control, striving to safeguard the community-wide anti-pandemic efforts as a graft fighter. In addition, the CCAC detected a few cases involving illegal access to computer information by public servants. According to the information of the cases, some public servants from different departments violated the criminal laws by taking advantage of their duties and illegally accessing computer information or confidential work-related information accessible to them in order to solicit interest for others or to satisfy their own illicit purposes. Given that there were similar cases in the past, it is necessary for the SAR Government to strengthen promotion and education in this regard. It should not only improve the firewalls for the relevant systems but also the technical firewalls so as to safeguard the security of public and personal information. Thankfully, after years of unrelenting efforts of the CCAC, the year 2022 saw a significant decrease in the number of fraud cases committed by public servants.

2. Retrospective review mechanism in the anti-corruption area: in addition to investigating into corruption cases, the CCAC also strived to take forward the Integrity Management Plan and to optimise the building of integrity systems. In 2022, the CCAC also followed up the notifications of cases issued by the CCAC as well as notifications of disciplinary offences issued by different departments so as to put into action the policy of the “retrospective review”.

3. Declaration of assets and interests: the CCAC, according to the 2^nd Five-Year Plan and the policy address, strengthened cooperation between depositary entities of the declaration of assets and interests, which has enabled a faster and simpler execution of the work within the scope of the declaration of assets and interests. Following exchanges on some meetings, the CCAC and the Office of the President of the Court of Final Appeal already drew up concrete plans on data sharing in the aspect of declaration of assets and interests, including realising moderate data sharing via API. The CCAC and the Office of the President of the Court of Final Appeal have already commenced the development of the relevant systems respectively.

4. External investigation assistance mechanism: the CCAC has overcome various obstacles arising from the pandemic. Up to 30^th September 2022, it handled a total of 18 cases at the requests for case assistance received from counterparts outside the Region. In May 2022, the CCAC of Macao and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hong Kong conducted a joint operation and detected a case where some members of an air-conditioning system supplier from Hong Kong were suspected to offer bribes to the director of the facilities department of a gaming company of Macao. The case witnessed how, for the first time, the situation that the two places have different legal requirements on corruption offences in the private sector had been overcome. In the process of investigating the case, the CCAC of Macao and the ICAC of Hong Kong had smooth cooperation in intelligence exchange, criminal investigation and the joint operation as well as demonstrated high level of professionalism. The case was regarded as a successful cross-jurisdictional effort in jointly fighting corruption.

II. Ombudsman’s actions

In order to implement the plans drawn up in the policy address for 2022, the CCAC collated the facts in the cases and consolidated the procedures in a timely manner. It also carried out comprehensive inspection on particular issues or systems of administrative departments in order to promote better governance by the SAR Government. In addition, it actively facilitated the promotion of “All for Integrity”–for citizens and public departments in order to strengthen residents’ correct understanding of the ombudsman’s actions.

Up to 30^th September 2022, a total of 134 inquiry files were opened by the Ombudsman Bureau of the CCAC. Along with the cases carried forward from 2021, there were a total of 364 inquiry cases that were under investigation and follow-up by the Ombudsman Bureau. The details of the relevant work are as follows:

1. Case investigation function: in 2022, the CCAC has continued to pay attention to the positive expectations and well-intentioned comments of residents for the SAR Government. When the rights, freedoms, safeguards and legitimate interests of residents were undermined, the CCAC carried out investigation work within the scope of ombudsman’s power according to the law, in order to seek fair methods and solutions to address residents’ problems, thus promoting legality, reasonableness and adequacy of the practice of administrative acts. Moreover, it gave opinions or recommendations to the relevant departments in a timely manner and urged the Government to exercise powers according to the law fairly and impartially. It also successfully fought for lawful rights and interests for residents in some cases without them having to resort to other methods.

   Up to 30^th September 2022, 154 cases were filed by the Ombudsman Bureau of the CCAC upon completion of the investigations and adoption of the necessary measures, including the inquiry file on the intelligent terminal system for taxis and the comprehensive investigation file on serious wall tile falling at common areas of Edifício do Lago and Edifício Ip Heng. The relevant investigation reports were published in March and May respectively in 2022.

2. Performing the function of carrying out comprehensive review: it has continued to review the cases that fall within the ombudsman’s work and are widely concerned by the public or involve significant public interest, so that cases subject to inquiries that meet the conditions may be combined or converted into those to be subject to comprehensive investigation in due course. This may facilitate the consolidation of information and evidence obtained from the investigations and create a broad view of the incidents involved, which is conducive to an in-depth analysis of the causes of the administrative problems arising from the legal regimes and allows the performance of the monitoring function of the CCAC with greater precision.

   Up to 30^th September 2022, the CCAC completed the work of consolidating 17 investigation case files within the scope of the ombudsman’s work, and it has been continuously monitoring and analysing them in order to make sure whether they have met the conditions for being converted into those to be subject to comprehensive investigation and whether this is feasible.

3. Responses to real-name complaints: since the CCAC started to fully implement the online complaint platform in 2022, those who file real-name complaints or reports can easily check the general progress of their cases handled by the Ombudsman Bureau on the CCAC’s website. If residents still wish to obtain more detailed information, they may contact the CCAC’s staff directly to arrange face-to-face meetings and notifications. This not only strengthens good communication between the CCAC and residents but also takes into account the strict requirements of the principle of confidentiality.

4. Implementation of the “retrospective review” mechanism within the scope of the ombudsman’s powers: the retrospective review mechanism is one of the ways by which the CCAC’s supervisory function is exercised. It is also one of the essential tasks in the area of ombudsman’s work for the 2^nd Five-Year Plan. Up to 30^th September 2022, a total of 12 cases were included in the list of “retrospective review” within the scope of the ombudsman’s powers. As it was considered that effective improvement measures had been taken on three of the aforesaid cases by the public departments involved, which effectively responded to the society’s needs, the three cases were removed from the list.

5. Tying in with awareness-raising actions to encourage the filing of responsible complaints: to tie in with the promotion plan for the project “All for Integrity” - for citizens and public departments prepared by the CCAC in 2022, the Ombudsman Bureau participated in the design and guidance work of the relevant publicity materials or activities, which aimed to correctly convey the concepts and content about the ombudsman’s functions to the public, to consolidate residents’ correct and responsible awareness of filing complaints and to further increase the public’s confidence in the work of the CCAC.

It should be noted that the novel coronavirus pandemic in the Macao SAR remained severe in mid-2022, which affected the normal operation of the entire Macao SAR Government and caused some of the work within the scope of the ombudsman’s powers of the CCAC not to have been successfully carried out according to the previously planned policy address, especially in terms of reasonableness and operability, which was truly an obstacle for the CCAC to fully exercise its supervisory functions through different ways.

III. Promotion and education as well as community publicity

In 2022, the CCAC carried out, in an orderly manner, publicity and community relations work according to the 2^nd Five-Year Plan and under the principle of “Progression and innovation. Upholding integrity by the Government and residents” mentioned in the policy address, including continuously strengthening the awareness of integrity in the public and private sectors and carrying out integrity education according to the plan entitled “All for Integrity”. To tie in with the trend of online learning and the public’s habit of receiving information, some online teaching resources and promotion content were launched. Furthermore, to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of integrity building in 2022, the CCAC prepared and carried out various activities to promote integrity, which aims to continuously contribute to the development of a probity culture in Macao.

As for regular education and promotion work, up to 30^th September 2022, the CCAC organised a total of 300 talks, seminars and activities of various types, recording a total of 17,506 participants who were mainly public servants, employees of commercial firms, teenagers, tertiary institution students, secondary and primary school students, kindergarten students and ordinary citizens. In addition, the following initiatives were also carried out as priorities:

1. Effective implementation of the long-term promotion plan “All for Integrity”: according to the plan “All for Integrity”, the CCAC focused on citizens and public departments in its education and promotion work in 2022. In addition to promoting the “Integrity Management Plan – Progression and Innovation” that targets at public departments, it also strengthened promotion for citizens of the purpose of the ombudsman’s functions and its scope of application. The CCAC has been promoting the ombudsman’s functions on the theme of “Filing Rational Complaints & Improving the Systems”, where it introduces to residents, through such means as posters, publicity leaflets and audiovisual broadcasting, on how to optimise the use of the complaints system to resolve problems and encourages them to understand the practical functions of the CCAC as a watchdog in the ombudsman’s work.

2. Promotion of the “Integrity Management Plan – Progression and Innovation”: in order to promote and encourage integrity in administration among public departments and to create prevention and education mechanisms, based on the “Integrity Management Plan”, the CCAC launched the “Integrity Management Plan – Progression and Innovation”. In the first half of 2022, the CCAC developed the preparatory work for the initial phase of the “Integrity Management Plan – Progression and Innovation”, including creating an information platform and a dedicated website for the “Integrity Management Plan – Progression and Innovation”, so as to prepare for the implementation of the aforesaid plan.

3. New positioning of the CCAC’s Branch Office in Taipa to enhance the promotion of integrity education: after completion of the renovation works, the Branch Office in Taipa reopened to the public on 1^st March and was slated to be an integrity education base for young people and civic associations. Up to 30^th September 2022, the Branch Office in Taipa received 33 visits, with participants being leaders of several higher education institutions and representatives of schools and groups. Representatives of the education sector agreed that the design of the Branch Office in Taipa and the various interactive multimedia facilities there will allow visitors to deepen their knowledge of the fight against corruption, thus narrowing the distance between the CCAC and residents, particularly young people. In addition, up to 30^th September 2022, the Branch Office in Taipa and the Branch Office in Areia Preta received a total of 336 complaints/reports, requests for help and consultation and simple enquiries. In March 2022, the CCAC even started to launch an online appointment platform for filing complaints so as to allow residents to reasonably plan their time for complaint filing.

4. Collaborating with the education sector so that integrity education may better cater to the needs of young people: the CCAC attaches great importance to cooperation with the education sector. In 2022, it once again organised “the Integrity Lesson Plan Design Collection Activity”, which attracted a total of 122 entries from open groups and student groups of 46 schools and higher education institutions, almost doubling the number of entries received last year. The CCAC will compile and upload some of the winning entries to the Resources Database for Integrity Education so as to enrich the relevant teaching resources.

   Simultaneously, the CCAC committed itself to promoting the work for the “panel of advisors for teaching materials on integrity”, including arranging members of the panel to try teaching the lesson plans compiled by the CCAC and continuously providing teaching resources for the “Resources Database for Integrity Education”, so that the teaching materials on integrity may better cater to the needs of students and educators. In addition, the CCAC invited the teachers awarded in the “Integrity Lesson Plan Design Collection Activity 2022” to join the aforesaid panel. At present, there are nearly 100 members in the panel from 36 secondary schools, primary schools, kindergartens and special schools in Macao, making the panel being of a larger scale and more representative.

5. Launch of the activity entitled “30 years of integrity building”: the year 2022 marks the 30^th anniversary of Macao’s integrity building. The CCAC therefore, in the first half of the year, specially launched a WeChat quiz game entitled “Positive Energy of Integrity” in the hope that the public may better understand and support the work of the CCAC through participation in the game. The quiz game was popular among residents and recorded 27,441 participants, which achieved the desired results. As the pandemic was under control and remained at a stable level, the CCAC, to tie in with the positioning of the Branch Office in Taipa as an integrity education base, organised an activity entitled “30 years of integrity building” – an open day at its Branch Office in Taipa, which enabled residents, through visiting and having first-hand experience with all the facilities in the Branch Office, to better understand the functions and the work of the CCAC from multiple perspectives and have a different experience with the CCAC.

6. Combining online and offline promotion and education materials to cater to public habits: the CCAC has been actively optimising the use of new media to promote integrity education so as to provide the general population with information on the fight against corruption, the ombudsman’s functions and the relevant legislation. Up to 30^th September 2022, there were increases in the number of people who accessed and shared the CCAC’s infographics and in the number of followers of the CCAC on WeChat. The number of followers already exceeded 11,900. The CCAC will cater to residents’ current habits of receiving information and will continue to step up publicity so as to raise the awareness of honesty and law-abidingness among the public in their daily lives. In addition, taking account of the trend of online learning in the society, the CCAC periodically released learning materials on different topics on the “Integrity Information Webpage for Public Servants” and the dedicated webpage for the law of Prevention and Suppression of Bribery in the Private Sector. The CCAC also continued to launch the online course entitled “Uphold Your Integrity” in cooperation with the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau. Moreover, it has been continuously creating and uploading stories about honesty targeting at primary school students for the use of teachers and parents.

   In the second half of the year, the CCAC will hold a micro-movie production competition on honesty targeting at teenagers, organise an activity entitled “Building of Integrity in the Community 2022” with some associations and launch a series of activities for the “United Nations’ International Anti-Corruption Day”, so that the values of honesty and integrity will permeate all sectors of society.

7. Developing teaching materials on integrity into stories helps young children nurture righteous characters: the CCAC has been dedicated to nurturing a new generation that upholds honesty and integrity in Macao together with parents and educators. In 2022, the CCAC launched a programme entitled “the Messenger Bear William Tells You a Story” for kindergarten and lower primary students. Part of the original puppet show materials and stories of the CCAC were re-edited and compiled into reading materials that come with sounds and graphics. These reading materials, featuring themes such as incorruptibility, honesty, integrity and responsibility, will be officially launched in the second half of the year.

   The CCAC also prepared the teaching materials entitled Nothing about the Planet is Trivial for lower primary students, which will be launched and used in the 2022/2023 school year. This new publication and the existing one for higher primary students cover the entire primary stage of school education. These teaching materials for lower primary students are based on six animated short stories on the topics of honesty and come with board games as teaching aids. They aim to spread the core values of morality, such as not being greedy, not telling lies, keeping promises, fairness, responsibility, and self-discipline.

   In addition, during the International Children’s Day, the CCAC organised a children’s drama entitled “Star Journey” at some schools to encourage students to think about honesty. A theme song “Commitment to Honesty” was also specially created for this activity to guide children to establish correct values. The aforesaid drama tour took place in May and June in 2022. Despite the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, 31 sessions of the drama were held at 21 schools, which recorded participation by more than 3,700 kindergarten and lower primary students.

   Through the aforesaid teaching materials and activities, the CCAC provided teachers and parents with diversified moral education activity resources, so as to support the relevant education work of families and schools.

8. Professionalising the Integrity Volunteer Team: at present, the CCAC’s Integrity Volunteer Team has nearly 400 members. To enhance team spirit and professional abilities of the members, the CCAC has specially organised visits and professional training activities for the volunteers, which allows them to give play to their talent and use their professional knowledge to support the publicity work of the CCAC.

IV. External affairs

In 2022, the CCAC’s work related to external affairs has still been affected by the worldwide novel coronavirus pandemic. To be in line with the control and preventive measures adopted by the SAR Government, the CCAC did not organise delegates to pay visits abroad or receive delegates from abroad. However, the CCAC has been, as always, dynamically fulfilling its duties as a member of international and regional organisations by participating, through videoconferencing, in conferences and training courses organised by different organisations, which not only encouraged exchanges with people from other countries and regions, but also strengthened professional training for the CCAC’s personnel. In addition, the CCAC continued to maintain good communication with its counterparts in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and other countries, so as to jointly contribute to the work of integrity building.

The CCAC participated, via online means, in several conferences organised by different international and regional organisations, including the Plenary Session of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA), the Plenary Session of the Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities (GlobE Network) and the Work Meeting of the Steering Committee of the GlobE Network. It also participated in several seminars and workshops organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international organisations, where they had discussions on international cooperation in preventing and fighting corruption and learnt about the work and results of the reform of integrity building carried out in other countries and regions.

In June 2022, at the invitation of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao Special Administrative Region, the CCAC assigned staff to participate, together with the Chinese delegation and via online means, in the 13^th meeting of the working group on the implementation review of the United Nations Convention against Corruption which took place in Vienna. During the meeting, the execution of the review mechanism for the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption was reported and views were exchanged on the general status of implementation of the Convention.

In addition, by successively participating in the work of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA), the Asian Ombudsman Association (AOA) and the Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities (GlobE Network), the CCAC has been effectively fulfilling its duties as a member of the relevant international organisations. The CCAC was also invited to participate in the preparatory work for the review of the report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and provided opinions on issues that were within the CCAC’s purview.

V. Optimisation of the operation and internal management of the CCAC

In order to implement the Macao SAR’s policy direction of integration into national development mentioned in the policy address, to improve the integrity systems and integrity building and to realise 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, the CCAC presented opinions and suggestions on the revision of the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region and the Administrative Regulation on the Organisation and Operation of the Service of the Commission Against Corruption, so as to make forward-looking planning on personnel allocation and the institutional set-up. The preliminary technical preparatory work related to the draft law and the draft administrative regulation almost comes to an end and will be presented to the competent bodies in due course so that the relevant legislation revision processes may be carried out officially.

I. Anti-corruption actions

In 2023, the CCAC will proactively enhance the quality of investigation, broaden its visions regarding anti-corruption and spare no effort to fight corruption and conduct supervision within the scope of its competence in a practical way. At the same time, according to the characteristics of the cases handled in the past, the CCAC will reinforce the investigative and handling measures applied to similar cases, such as those involving fraud over government subsidies and damage to public interests, so as to achieve the goals about integrity building set in the 2^nd Five-Year Plan and the Policy Address of the SAR Government.

In 2023, the CCAC will carry out the following anti-corruption actions:

1. To enhance the supervision against corruption related to epidemic prevention: specific plans will be made for the cases related to epidemic prevention in order to ensure that the SAR Government will implement the prevention policies more smoothly. In this sense, the measures adopted in the epidemic prevention process, such as allocation of the anti-epidemic funds, will be better implemented.

2. To give suggestions on the revision of the Electoral Law of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao Special Administrative Region: the CCAC will carefully sum up the valuable experience of supervision of the 7^th Legislative Assembly Elections held in 2021, study the contents of the Electoral Law of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao Special Administrative Region that need to be improved by taking account into the problems found in the previous elections and give relevant suggestions on the revision of the law to the SAR Government.

3. To constantly combat corruption and review the relevant laws: the CCAC will continue to combat corruption in the public and private sectors impartially and ceaselessly. Meanwhile, the CCAC will conduct preliminary analysis and research on the problems occurred concerning the implementation of the law regulating bribery in the private sector for more than ten years and sum up the relevant experience.

4. To reinforce case investigation and handling in order to protect public interests: due to the promulgation of Administrative Regulation Regime of Public Financial Support of the Macao Special Administrative Region and the upcoming entry into force of law Legal Regime of Publicly-owned Enterprises, the CCAC will fully exert its duties within the scope of its power just as other supervisory entities do in order to ensure legal use of public funds. The CCAC will continue to reinforce the investigation and handling of the cases involving fraud over public fund and damage to public interests. If any loopholes in the grant of government subsidies are found, the CCAC will notify the supervisory entities regulating the relevant systems in a timely manner in order to perfect the public financial support regime.

5. To proactively carry out external exchange and training activities: in 2023, the CCAC will invite experienced local criminal investigation experts or judicial officers to provide specific training for investigators when the epidemic situation subsides. At the same time, it will actively go further with various practical exchange activities on graft fighting with the supervisory organisations of China and surrounding regions. Also, it will dispatch investigators to attend the specific training courses held by the anti-corruption organisations or professional institutions of surrounding regions where conditions permit in order to maintain the professional quality of the investigators of the CCAC.

6. To strengthen deployment in order to enhance the quality of investigation: the CCAC will strengthen the deployment of technological means of investigation. It plans to develop a software for investigation and analysis as well as upgrade the electronic forensic hardware and software so that the quality of investigative technologies of the CCAC will keep up with the times and the investigation and management of cases will advance to a new level.

II. Ombudsman actions

In 2023, in addition to playing the role as the ombudsman in case processing, the CCAC will strive to study and seek enhancement of integrity supervision of legal system.

It is no secret that the CCAC always complies with the principle of legality and acts in accordance with law when executing its duties and applying the laws. At the same time, it is necessary to take account into the principles of adequacy and proportionality in order to achieve the governance goal to not only “do things” but also “do things well”. Therefore, the CCAC has been self-demanding and carefully adjusting and improving the policies and the directions of work plans.

In recent years, the CCAC has devoted a lot of manpower and material resources to the development of information system. The statistical data collected has been gradually applied to the work plans in the area of ombudsmanship. After analysing and summing up the data collected and the phenomena and facts they reflected, the CCAC will easier plan the direction of the future development and the policies and measures in a more concrete and specific way.

In 2023, in order to take a further step to full achievement of the objectives regarding the duty as the ombudsman provided for in the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region and, especially, by taking account into facilitation of sustainable improvement of the SAR Government’s actions, the CCAC will notify public departments of the findings of the investigation of ombudsman cases and disclose them to the general public timely, appropriately and adequately without prejudice to the principle of confidentiality, thus properly boosting the transparency of the work in the area of ombudsmanship.

Supported by objective data and due to realistic needs, the CCAC’s work plans in the area of ombudsmanship in 2023 are as follows:

1. Proper increase of transparency: the CCAC publicises the annual report every year in accordance with the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region. However, due to limitations on space, many ombudsman cases that arouse wide concern and were closely related to citizens’ daily life were not published in the report, which might hinder citizens from having a more comprehensive understanding of ombudsman actions. In addition, not only the cases followed up by the Ombudsman Bureau of the CCAC originated from new complaints or reports, but also many of them were cases reported by the complainants/informants against the same matter or department again or even requests for re-opening of old case files. According to statistics, up to 30^th September 2022, the cases followed up or reopened after being archived accounted for 14.93% of the cases investigated. Among them, there were situations where the complainants/informants did not agree on the CCAC’s findings and insisted in their views, while some were cases where the complainants/informants raised doubts due to lack of direct communication.

   Therefore, the CCAC will appropriately increase the transparency under the condition that the principle of secrecy is properly complied with. The progress and findings of the investigation of some ombudsman cases will be briefly disclosed to the public timely in the spaces on the website specially designed and reserved when upgrading the website in the last fiscal year in order to satisfy society’s expectation of transparency and openness as well as achieve the effect of promoting and disseminating the message of “filing rational complaints & improving the systems”. This is also the extension of the promotion plan “All for Integrity – for citizens and public departments”.

2. Encouraging self-confidence in administration: taking into account the fact that both the matters involved in the ombudsman cases investigated by the CCAC and the process, the reasoning behind or the results of the analyses may influence the measures or decisions taken or to be taken by the relevant departments or entities, the CCAC will not only render recommendations to the departments on the matters that need improvement but also take appropriate measures in the cases in order to assist the relevant departments or entities to clarify their stance and assure their own reasoning without showing inferiority and arrogance. It is undoubtedly important to try the best to address the shortcomings, but one should also insist in legal, logical and reasonable practices with confidence.

3. Strengthening supervision on disciplinary procedures: In pace with the implementation of “Integrity Management Plan – Progression and Innovation”, a new information platform regarding disciplinary procedures will be developed. Also, aligning with the revision of the relevant laws in progress, the CCAC will stably grasp the information of the disciplinary legal situations of relevant public departments. In addition to facilitating the performance of the relevant supervisory functions in a more effective way, through data analysis and integration of information, the CCAC will try to gradually sum up the opinions or suggestions that facilitate public departments’ initiation and handling of disciplinary procedures.

4. Continuing to implement the mechanisms of “unified recommendation” and “retrospective review”: as they are permanent mechanisms in the area of ombudsmanship, especially in the cases of comprehensive investigation, the CCAC will continue to centralise the handling of the ombudsman cases involving the same departments or those involving the issues in the same areas but different departments in order to achieve the objectives of ombudsman by means of “unified recommendation”. Also, the CCAC will use the mechanism of “retrospective review” continuously in order to urge the administrative departments to solve the relevant problems effectively.

III. Publicity, education and community relations

In 2023, the CCAC will continue to aim for the target of “all for integrity” in accordance with the development directions it put forward in the 2^nd Five-Year Plan and keep on promoting integrity and honesty in the entire society of Macao in the following ways:

• To go further with “Integrity Management Plan – Progression and Innovation”, propel and encourage public departments to establish prevention and education mechanisms regarding integrity and lawful performance of duty in order to reduce the chance of occurrence of unlawful acts such as corruption and irregularities.
• To organise diversified promotional activities which cater to the needs of citizens, especially young people in order to integrate the value of honesty and integrity into all walks of life.
• To make good use of the partnerships built up for many years with the academic sector, public departments and private entities in order to make suitable plans in cooperation with them to promote integrity.
• To make more use of promotion methods that combine traditional ways and new media, online and offline, as well as the advantage of the two integrity education bases so that integrity promotion will be carried out comprehensively and intensively in the community and that the society’s support for and participation in integrity building will be gained to enhance the development of integrity building.

IV. External affairs

In order to complement with the SAR Government’s direction to integrate Macao into the national development, the CCAC will continue to strengthen the exchange and cooperation with the related departments of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and plan the cooperation projects with various places in a detailed way in order to establish closer connection with them to jointly take the plans in the Greater Bay Area further and do the best to contribute to the stable and sustainable development of “One Country, Two Systems” in the Macao SAR in the aspect of integrity building.

As to international and regional cooperation, the CCAC will continue to cooperate with China in the review of the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. It will rigorously perform the duty as a member of the relevant international and regional organisations by fully supporting their works and proactively participating in international conferences, seminars and workshops. In addition, it will strengthen the exchange with the counterparts of other countries and regions and maintain good relations with them in order to join hands with them to face the challenges and adversities that the world is facing.

In addition, in order to promote and implement the “Integrity Management Plan – Progression and Innovation”, when the pandemic situation is stable and under control, the CCAC will organise “coordinators for integrity affairs” to pay a study visit to the Great Bay Area, where they will visit the integrity education bases in order to further understand the development and effectiveness of the anti-corruption actions in the Chinese mainland, strengthen personnel’s awareness of corruption prevention, deepen their knowledge of the country and enable the public service team to understand the importance of integrity building more clearly.

As to personnel training, the CCAC plans to cooperate with the related departments of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong by sending personnel to receive training there. It also intends to invite experts and scholars in the relevant fields to give lessons in Macao in order to enhance CCAC personnel’s knowledge and professional skills.

V. Optimisation of the operation and internal management of the CCAC

Ever since the Policy Address for 2020 was implemented, the CCAC has intended to respond to the general expectations of society. To strengthen its inherent functions, introduce the system of sending investigators to carry out inspection in the process of integrity building, and strengthen the “function of case-by-case supervision” through the revision of the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region is also one of the missions of the CCAC in the 2^nd Five-Year Plan.

Over the past two years, the CCAC has been following up and promoting the preliminary work on the revision of the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region and Administrative Regulation Organisation and Operation of the Service of the Commission Against Corruption. Following a study of and comparison between the similar supervisory entities of the Macao SAR, the Chinese mainland and the neighbouring regions in terms of nature, function and competence, in adherence with “One Country, Two Systems”, a system of integrity supervision specifically suitable for the situations of the Macao SAR will be designed. Through the process of law revision, the supervisory function with the characteristics of Macao will be clearly defined in the law. Meanwhile, the staffing allocation of investigators will be adjusted in order to build a stable and dedicated professional team with rich experience in investigation. In 2023, the CCAC will give priority to the revision of the Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region and the relevant administrative regulation.