FOREWORD

Since the beginning of the current-term government, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) has defined the direction of five-year development of integrity building and has advocated the governing belief “To act with virtue, to live with integrity”. Over the years, it has been promoting the work related to integrity building in an orderly manner and assuming the responsibilities of combatting corruption and supervision determinedly. The work in all areas has therefore achieved significant progress.

Over the past five years, the overall integrity situation in Macao has been positive and the society has shown a more proactive attitude towards dealing with corruption issues. There has also been a significant decrease in cases of abuse of power for personal gain and corruption by public servants, fraudulent investment immigration, government subsidy fraud and other situations that were common in the past. As regards the work related to mutual case assistance, cooperation with the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong has been strengthened. As such, the relevant work has been taken to a new level and the joint effort to combat cross-border corruption has been more effective. With regard to the ombudsman’s work, the administrative operation of public departments was monitored according to law and mechanisms were created to ensure governance and administration according to law. In particular, through the “retrospective review” mechanism, the situations in respect of governance improvement made by competent departments or bodies have been monitored continuously, so as to effectively respond to the society’s aspirations and produce practical effects. In response to legal and reasonable practices, a pragmatic approach has been adopted and due recognition has been given to encourage self-confidence of the administration. When it comes to promotion and education, awareness-raising work covering the public and private sectors has been strengthened, and a new model of cooperation with various associations and the education sector was developed to promote integrity for all. Special emphasis has been placed on the participation of young people so that an integrity team can be formed in Macao. In addition, new media has been used more extensively in promotion activities and experiential teaching has also been adopted, which shows that the CCAC has maintained its courage to innovate and has achieved good results. In promoting cooperation with other countries and regions on integrity, the CCAC has actively implemented the national anti-corruption strategy, firmly followed the direction of integrity work in Macao, intensified international exchanges and actively participated in online and offline cooperation and training activities held in the Chinese mainland and overseas, in order to better understand the latest trends in anti-corruption work and ombudsman’s work in the world, and thus keeping abreast with the times.

The work of integrity building in recent years can be summarised as follows:

The CCAC has been combatting corruption crimes in the public and private sectors according to its powers. During the current-term government (up to 30^th September 2024), 489 criminal cases were investigated in the area of anti-corruption, of which 271 involved the public sector and 218 involved the private sector. Among these cases, 64 were referred to the Public Prosecutions Office for handling, including the case of passive corruption and money laundering committed by the former directors of the then Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau, the case of passive corruption committed by an assistant prosecutor general where he provided illicit assistance to persons subject to investigations in criminal cases, and the electoral corruption case involving more than 200 voters, which aroused grave concern in the society.

The CCAC also investigated and handled various types of fraud to obtain subsidies and financial support from the government, fraudulent investment immigration cases, cases involving duty related crimes committed by public servants and corruption in the private sector, among others. During the epidemic period, the CCAC also investigated and handled some cases relevant to the epidemic prevention and control, striving to safeguard the community-wide anti-epidemic efforts as a graft fighter. Following the untiring efforts of the CCAC over the years and under the strategies of combatting and preventing corruption simultaneously, there has been a significant drop in the cases of defrauding government subsidies that frequently appeared in various forms in the past, including cases of defrauding subsidies granted by the government through the Continuing Education Development Plan and fraud to obtain government subsidies by associations and institutions, which means that there have been intermediate achievements in the crackdown efforts. Nonetheless, the CCAC continued to insist on investigating all cases received in order to prevent resurgence of crimes, through which loopholes may be plugged.

In addition, the overall integrity level in Macao has been gradually improving over the past five years. According to the CCAC’s statistics on the number of cases filed for the public and private sectors, the proportion of cases filed for the private sector has been increasing over the years. In 2021, the number of cases filed for the private sector exceeded that filed for the public sector for the first time. Judging from the practical experience of combatting corruption in neighbouring regions, the decrease in the proportion of cases related to the public sector reflects an increase in the overall integrity level of a government. At the same time, there has also been a change in society’s attitude towards the handling of corruption cases in the private sector. In 2024, several integrated resort enterprises, for the first time, took the initiative to file complaints about suspected corruption in the private sector committed by their employees.

During the current-term government, several firsts occurred in the anti-corruption work, including the aforesaid one where several integrated resort enterprises, for the first time, took the initiative to file complaints about suspected corruption in the private sector committed by their employees. The CCAC also, for the first time, dispatched staff from both the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Ombudsman Bureau to jointly carry out on-site investigative action. It investigated into one of the cases that might involve the crimes of corruption and related fraud crimes according to law. Meanwhile, it placed such case under comprehensive investigation for its administrative illegalities and improprieties, reviewed and inspected relevant operation systems and looked into the problems that might exist with an aim to enhance the efficiency and the level of precision of investigation.

In the area of external investigation assistance, the difficulties arising from the different legal requirements of Macao and Hong Kong on corruption offences in the private sectors were overcome for the first time – in a joint operation with the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hong Kong, a case was detected, 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 an integrated resort enterprise of Macao, which was a successful cross-jurisdictional effort in jointly fighting corruption.

In addition, a case of voluntary surrender by a suspect was recorded for the first time, and a case of false accusation was also handled. In the course of handling complaints, in addition to adhering to the principle of investigating all cases received and looking into all substantiated cases, the CCAC has also maintained an impartial and fair attitude.

During the period when border restrictions were implemented due to the epidemic, the CCAC’s mutual case assistance work was indeed affected, and the number of cases decreased accordingly. However, thanks to the good cooperation relations and sound liaison mechanisms established between the CCAC, the National Supervisory Commission and the ICAC of Hong Kong, despite that some of the mutual case assistance work was not fully carried out, it could still continue steadily, and cooperation with other counterparts was maintained.

With the easing of the coronavirus epidemic, the CCAC pressed ahead with the work of handling the backlogged mutual assistance cases from the epidemic. In 2023 and 2024, the number of mutual assistance cases hit the record high time and again. At the same time, in order to strengthen cooperation among the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao and to form a legal basis for the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the CCAC and the National Supervisory Commission signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the fight against corruption, which has taken the work related to mutual case assistance to a new level.

Over the past five years (up to 30^th September 2024), the CCAC has followed up a total of 73 mutual assistance cases, of which 55 cases were followed up at the requests for case assistance made by the agencies of the Chinese mainland and 18 cases were followed up at the requests for case assistance made by the ICAC of Hong Kong. The CCAC has made a total of 23 requests for case assistance to counterparts outside the region, of which 13 were made to agencies of the Chinese mainland, seven to the ICAC of Hong Kong and three to both agencies of the Chinese mainland and the ICAC of Hong Kong.

The CCAC has been committed to, through various forms of supervision, achieving the objectives of promoting optimisation of work and improvement of the relevant regimes by public departments. During the five years of governance of the current-term government (up to 30^th September 2024), a total of 1,073 cases were followed up by the Ombudsman Bureau, of which 29 cases were under comprehensive investigations and 885 cases were under inquiries.

Regarding complaints and queries made many years ago or recently which aroused grave social concern, the CCAC stepped up efforts in looking into them, seeking to complete the respective work within the past five years and to disclose the full results of the investigations to the public, including:

• "Investigation report on the granting of loans to Viva Macau by the Industrial and Commercial Development Fund"
• "Investigation report about 74 land concession leasehold case files where the provisional concession leaseholds were declared expired"
• "Investigation report on the fire shutters of Edifício do Bairro da Ilha Verde"
• "Comprehensive investigation report on the granting of subsidy for school development plan by the Education Development Fund"
• "Inquiry report on the intelligent terminal system for taxis"
• "Comprehensive report on serious wall tile falling at common areas of Edifício do Lago and Edifício Ip Heng"
• "Investigation on cultural heritage protection work for Lok Kok Restaurant"
• "Inquiry findings on the land plot at the Leather Factory"
• "Inquiry report on Chief Executive Order no. 57/2024 (involving selling prices of independent units for economic housing projects located at Lots B4, B9 and B10 of New Urban Zone Area A)"

In order to increase the transparency of work, the CCAC has optimised its work by adjusting the ways of handling cases, so that problems can be dealt with in a more focused and effective manner, thus increasing the effectiveness of investigations; in addition, the CCAC has published the investigation findings of more cases within the scope of the ombudsman’s office on its website in a timely manner, and it has also published the status and reasoning of the handling of the respective work, so that the general public may better understand the work of the CCAC. This may also, to a certain extent, allow them to understand the applicable laws and their rationale as well as interpret the facts correctly.

The CCAC has taken timely and appropriate measures and has carried out appropriate follow-up work based on the situations and results of investigations. For example, in order to plug the loopholes in the vetting and approval as well as supervision of public assets, the CCAC has not only put forward suggestions for improving the monitoring mechanisms for the use of funding support, but also held meetings with various funds between 2020 and 2021 to provide clarifications on the management of public assets. Regarding complaints received about the anti-epidemic arrangements made by the government, the CCAC held meetings with the public administration in 2022 and put forward feasible suggestions based on the actual situations.

During the current-term government, the CCAC held several meetings with the leadership of various public departments to exchange views and seek consensus on the interpretation of law, so as to realise the concepts and objectives of “administration according to law” and “accurate law enforcement”. The overall results were satisfactory. In 2024, at the request of the Health Bureau, the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Sports Bureau, among others, the CCAC held several meetings with them, where they jointly discussed the interpretation and application of different legal norms, with a view to effectively supporting the relevant departments in the correct implementation of law and administration according to law.

Since 2020, the CCAC has been implementing the “retrospective review” mechanism mentioned in the Policy Address in a gradual way. By including a total of 28 cases in the list of “retrospective review”, the CCAC concretely responded to the society’s demand for constant supervision and effective enhancement of integrity building of the SAR. In terms of ombudsman work, the CCAC closely followed up the improvement actions carried out by the relevant departments or entities and contacted them and gave them feedback in a timely manner. The departments generally respected and accepted the conclusions and suggestions made by the CCAC in investigation files of ombudsman cases. As to the livelihood issues that concerned the public, the CCAC still included the relevant cases in the list of “retrospective review” in order to carry out ongoing supervision. The cases in which the relevant improvement measures had been implemented were removed from the list. With nearly five years’ practical experience, the CCAC believed that it was an appropriate and right timing to standardise the mechanism of “retrospective review” when amending the legal regimes of the CCAC. Therefore, the measure of “retrospective review” was introduced to the proposed amendment of the law.

In addition, “encouraging self-confidence of the administration” was also one of the policies in the area of ombudsman actions introduced by the CCAC in the Policy Address in the previous year. The CCAC took the responsibility of supervision and correction. Regarding the complaints in which no sign of illegality was found, the CCAC verified the legality and rationality of the actions taken by the relevant departments. As to the departments that acted in accordance with the law, the CCAC positively recognised them in order to increase their self-confidence in administration and enable them to persist in legal, rational and reasonable administrative acts and practices, whereby enhancing establishment of systems based on governance and administration in accordance with the law. In 2024, the CCAC kept on observing different departments, sought to give timely recognition to the creditable departments and actively researched into the measures that would facilitate building of self-confidence of the administration.

The CCAC performs the duty to supervise the elections in accordance with the law and promotes the justice and integrity of the Chief Executive Election and the Legislative Assembly Elections.

For the 7^th Legislative Assembly Elections in 2021, the CCAC performed the duty of supervision in accordance with the law with an all-round approach carried out beforehand, throughout the process and afterwards and adopted a two-pronged approach focusing on both prevention and suppression to safeguard the integrity of the elections. When carrying out the supervision on the elections, the CCAC provided multiple platforms and channels to receive relevant complaints or reports. At the same time, the CCAC took the initiative to inspect and monitor different kinds of premises where electoral bribery was likely to occur. It carried out a total of 13,089 inspections and placed 28 cases on file, including four investigation files and two misdemeanour case files. In addition, the CCAC also focused on launching clean election publicity activities in order to spread the message of electoral integrity to different groups in society, including over 90 sessions under the theme of clean elections. Following the Legislative Assembly Elections which were held successfully, the CCAC quickly investigated and processed the cases of illegality related to the elections in accordance with law, of which three cases were referred to the Public Prosecutions Office and proceeded to prosecution.

After completing the mission of supervision, the CCAC summarised the situations in a timely manner and proposed suggestions on amendment to the electoral law. In 2023, the CCAC conducted thorough research on the Chief Executive Election Law and the Electoral Law of the Legislative Assembly and put forward several opinions on the amendment, which were basically adopted in the revised version of the electoral laws, including Article 80 (Commercial advertisement), Article 188-A (Electoral propaganda prior to the start of the electoral campaign), Article 192 (Illicit commercial advertisement) and the newly introduced Article 167-A (Public incitement) of the Electoral Law of the Legislative Assembly.

The system of assets and interests declaration is an important system to combat corruption and promote integrity in Macao. During the current-term government, the CCAC, in response to the demands brought by social development, strived to perfect the mechanism of declaration of assets and interests for public servants, actively established and optimised the electronic systems, contents of the webpage and services related to declaration of assets and interests. For example, the real-time display of number of declarants waiting was introduced to the webpage so that declarants might arrange their time for making declaration reasonably. Various applications and electronic platforms were developed, such as the “information sharing platform on the declaration of assets and interests”, the “online appointment system for the declaration of assets and interests”, etc. During the critical period of epidemic fighting when the CCAC should remain limited service, the “online appointment system for the declaration of assets and interests” played a crucial role, which enabled the work of declaration of assets and interests to run smoothly. Between January and September 2024, 964 persons made an appointment for submission of declaration through the system.

In addition, the CCAC also optimised the “notification processing system of declaration of assets and interests” launched in 2013, enabling the work of declaration of assets and interests to run in a smoother and more orderly way and increasing the efficiency of the handling of documents by all departments. Over the past five years (up to 30^th September 2024), the number of users and the utilisation rate increased continuously, with the number of departments using the system surging to over 70. Among the 18,442 letters/notification letters on declaration of assets and interests received, 17,379 were received through the system, representing nearly 95% of the total number of letters/notification letters received, thus achieving the desired results.

In order to precisely grasp the key information that might facilitate investigation, the CCAC has been strongly encouraging the lodging of real-name complaints and reports. Since 2020, the CCAC has been reviewing the systems of handling anonymous complaints, optimising the notification procedure of cases as well as actively carrying out promotion actions through different channels in order to evoke residents’ awareness of filing complaints responsibly.

In order to implement the policy of filing complaints responsibly, the CCAC, through the establishment and optimisation of information systems and complaint handling mechanism in the area of ombudsman actions, launched services including online inquiry code, SMS notification and in-person notification of results of investigation. Under the premise that the principle of confidentiality was safeguarded, the CCAC enhanced the contact for explanation and good communication with residents. Between January and September 2024, the CCAC sent a total of 664 enquiry codes to residents who lodged complaints or reports (including those for submissions of additional details of complaints).

According to statistics, during the current-term government, the number of real-name complaints or reports increased year by year, while that of anonymous complaints or reports decreased year by year following the implementation of the encouragement measure. Between January and September 2024, 60% of the complaints or reports were filed under real names.

In view of the increasingly covert modus operandi of corruption crimes, the CCAC strived to elevate investigators’ law-enforcement quality and professional knowledge. After the epidemic subsided, the CCAC jointly carried out exchange activities and cooperation actions at different levels on training of investigators with the ICAC of Hong Kong and relevant departments of the Chinese mainland and sent them to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland to receive training in order to elevate their professional skills and broaden their horizons. In 2023 and 2024, the CCAC sent its personnel to the Zhejiang Police College, the Criminal Investigation Police University of China and the ICAC of Hong Kong to take different types of training courses in order to learn the advanced investigation approaches from different places. The desired results were achieved.

Meanwhile, the CCAC also invited experts from the ICAC of Hong Kong to Macao to launch the “continuous training programme on anti-corruption work for the CCAC’s investigators”, which covered various investigation approaches and techniques including finance and accounting, money laundering, digital forensics and intelligence systems, among others, so as to enhance the CCAC’s investigators’ professional capacity.

In addition, the CCAC also actively sent personnel to participate in both online and offline international training activities on corruption fighting and ombudsman matters so as to enrich their professional knowledge, draw on the experience and skills of the counterparts in the relevant fields and keep abreast of the times. In 2024, the CCAC attended the webinars on topics of ombudsman matters held by the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), the African Ombudsman Research Centre (AORC) and the Forum of Pakistan Ombudsman (FPO) and the webinars on the topics including cross-border and international cooperation, innovative tools of investigation in anti-corruption cases, financial investigation and anti-money laundering respectively organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities (GlobE Network) of the United Nations, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG).

In line with the SAR Government’s policy of electronic governance, the CCAC, aiming at comprehensive digitalisation of data, initiated development of information systems in 2020, including optimisation of the systems of managing internal documents and cases, establishment of a database for internal enquiry, perfection of the complaints management mechanism, among others. In addition, the CCAC launched various electronic services for the convenience of residents, including online appointment for filing in-person complaints, online complaint progress enquiry and online appointment for submission of declaration of assets and interests, so that the relevant parties might make arrangement according to their own situations.

The CCAC also kept on optimising the online complaint system and its interface in order to make it more convenient and smoother for residents using the system. According to statistics, between January and September 2024, more than a half (55.95%) of the complaints or reports were lodged through the online complaint system, making up the highest proportion of all methods to lodge complaints or reports.

In order to better support investigation and taking into account the confidentiality, the CCAC formed a development task force to develop various kinds of investigation tools and software on its own, which enabled the investigation work to keep abreast of the times. Currently, the CCAC has developed a specific investigation analysis system, whereby achieving better results in financial analysis and digital forensics.

In the beginning of the current-term government, the CCAC set “All for Integrity” as the goal of promotion. Over the past five years, with adherence to the concept “To act with virtue, to live with integrity”, the CCAC carried out education actions on integrity targeting at all strata of society in an orderly way according to the long-term promotion plan “All for Integrity”. Targeting at public servants, residents, public departments and young people successively, the CCAC carried out the promotion and education activities on public servants’ awareness of integrity, clean elections, topics related to ombudsman matters, the law of Prevention and Suppression of Bribery in the Private Sector and the law of Prevention and Suppression of Bribery in External Trade. During the current-term government (up to 30^th September 2024), the CCAC held over 170 activities and competitions of various types and 2,266 seminars and talks, recording nearly 280,000 participants in total.

The CCAC is dedicated to strengthening the awareness of integrity in the public and private sectors. Based on the characteristics of the cases investigated by the CCAC, it optimised the training materials and introduced new ones in a timely manner to suit different targets and explained the relevant topics by case examples. At the same time, it launched themed webpages or e-learning courses, such as the course entitled “Uphold Your Integrity” jointly organised with the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau so as to continuously carry out training through online and offline approaches. Over recent years, the CCAC further strengthened promotion and education targeting at the private sector. It launched a thematic programme to promote integrity entitled “Strategies for Integrity” and produced publications on corruption prevention in order to give businesspersons useful suggestions on corruption prevention. In 2024, the CCAC launched an extended training activity on integrity for the private sector entitled “Workshop on Value of Integrity” and jointly produced an informative programme on corruption prevention with a youth association which featured visits of different local private enterprises and provided practical tips on corruption prevention according to the characteristics of each industry, with a view to fostering a culture of integrity in private enterprises and joining hands with various industries to build a firewall of integrity.

In addition, the CCAC kept abreast of the times, proactively catered to the general public’s habit of obtaining information and actively conveyed integrity values through diversified types of videos and new media, including the CCAC’s self-produced programme entitled “Corruption Cases” and the short video entitled “CC A See” with a view to continuously delivering the messages of upholding integrity and fighting against corruption to different target audiences. Despite that the offline promotion and education work was affected amidst epidemic, the CCAC still proactively enriched its online resources and kept moving forward with its integrity education through online approaches such as via broadcasts. In 2024, on the occasions of “dual celebrations” and the 25^th anniversary of the establishment of the CCAC, a micro-movie adapted from an anti-corruption real case was specially produced in order to allow the public to further understand the integrity development of Macao through television and films and promote the society to continuously attach importance to and pay attention to the building of integrity.

Moreover, the CCAC endeavoured to join hands with the education sector to promote integrity education and continuously deepen mutual cooperation by specially setting up a “panel of advisors for teaching materials on integrity” which comprised of experts and Macao non-tertiary education serving teachers with a view to giving trial teaching on lesson plans prepared by the CCAC and providing teaching resources for the “Resource Database for Integrity Education”. In addition, school-based training was also provided for the education sector so as to enhance the quality of integrity teaching and continuously increase the effectiveness of integrity education for teenagers of Macao. In 2024, together with the “panel of advisors for teaching materials on integrity”, the “microlecture on integrity” was launched with a view to providing further teaching support for teachers.

The CCAC not only deepened integrity education work in the community, launched integrity education projects in the community through developing a new mode of cooperation with civic associations and proactively developed community relations, but it also promoted professional development of volunteers by successively providing them with various professional training programmes and opportunities to develop their skills, arranging for them to visit the Greater Bay Area so as to enhance the values of integrity of the volunteers. Moreover, the CCAC also set up a Parent-Child Volunteer Group in order to further strengthen the forces of volunteers.

Following the policy direction of the country and the SAR Government which attaches importance to youth development, the CCAC has nurtured an integrity team in Macao based on the thought of cultivating moral value in an innovative way. Throughout these five years, multiple brand-new promotion and education projects and activities were rolled out successively, including launching the integrity promotion programme for higher education students and Training of Teenage Ambassadors of Integrity and Practice Plan in Schools, holding ‘Integrity’ Sports Competition Day and Micro-Movie Production Competition, and providing internship opportunities to higher education students with a view to allowing young people to have a deep thought and participate in integrity building through practical experience. In order to further take forward the promotion and education work for young people, the CCAC has repositioned the renovated Branch Office in Taipa and endeavoured to develop it into an integrity education base for young people of Macao with a view to providing higher education and secondary students with experiential teaching activities with “CCAC’s characteristics” and training activities to broaden their horizons about integrity so as to allow young people to learn, to think, to act and to participate in integrity building of Macao. In 2024, the CCAC implemented the “youth-oriented approach” in terms of promotion and further widened the international perspectives and the horizons about integrity of young people, including holding the “Conference of the State Parties to the Model United Nations Convention against Corruption”. In addition, a learning website about integrity awareness for higher education students was launched to encourage higher education students to enhance the alertness to corruption through self-learning.

The CCAC has always attached importance to integrity education and insisted on starting integrity education in childhood. Therefore, the CCAC holistically upgraded the software and hardware of the teaching resources of the Branch Office in Areia Preta and has given more focus on integrating multi-media and intelligent teaching elements in order that the integrity education base for primary students can better nurture the new generation of integrity. Moreover, the CCAC extended the on-campus activity “Integrity Week” to primary schools, published teaching resources and Stories about Integrity, and specially launched integrity and honesty education for families and parents. Due to the education development trend of cross-disciplinary learning, the CCAC proactively took forward the integration of interdisciplinarity and integrity education such as integrating with the STEM/STEAM education programme launched by schools in order that primary students were able to conceive and produce their own computer coding works and mechanic devices based on the topic of integrity. In addition, under the cross-disciplinary education approach, the CCAC also integrated moral education with general studies of science and humanities studies with a view to inspiring teenagers to reflect on the topic of honesty and integrity.

When it comes to external exchanges, the CCAC insists on the principle of “communicating internally and connecting externally”. During the current-term government, the CCAC took advantage of the easing of the epidemic to carry out exchanges, visits and training activities, with international cooperation in the field of prevention and combat of corruption maintained virtually. They included actively participating in the work of implementation review of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), fulfilling its duty as a member of international organisations, participating in meetings, seminars and workshops organised by various international and regional organisations, maintaining good communication with counterparts from different regions in order to grasp the international updates and trends about integrity in a timely manner.

With the epidemic coming to an end, Macao implemented full resumption of normal travel. In 2023, the CCAC fully resumed external exchanges. Delegations of counterparts from different regions including the Supreme People’s Court, the Guangdong Provincial Supervisory Committee, the Hebei Provincial Supervisory Committee, the prosecutor delegation from the Republic of Indonesia, the Legal and International Affairs Bureau of the Attorney General Office of the Republic of Indonesia, the ICAC of Hong Kong and the Department of Justice of Hong Kong were successively received. They exchanged views and shared the work experience about anti-corruption with the CCAC. In addition, the CCAC proactively organised delegations for some external visits. Through strengthening face-to-face exchanges with enforcement agencies from different regions, particularly by deepening anti-corruption exchanges and cooperation with neighbouring regions and proactively participating in integrity building in Greater Bay Area, bilateral and regional exchanges and cooperation could be further promoted and a society of integrity can be jointly built.

During the five years of governance of the current-term government, in order to respond to the need of renewing the CCAC’s structure and operation so as to cope with the increasingly complicated and sophisticated corruption phenomenon and to respond to the demand from the society regarding stricter scrutiny on public administrative work, the CCAC reviewed and analysed its own legal regime and relevant administrative regulation and proposed to competent bodies for amendment to relevant legislations and regulations with a view to planning and making arrangement within the scopes of powers, scope of activity, organisation structure, investigators’ regime of the CCAC and so forth in a forward-looking way.

The bill of “Amendment to Law no. 10/2000 ‘Organic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region’”, upon being generally passed by the Legislative Assembly in January 2024, was submitted to the Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly for review in detail. It was passed in the plenary meeting of the Legislative Assembly in August 2024. Moreover, the bill of “Amendment to Administrative Regulation no. 3/2009 ‘Organisation and Operation of the Service of the Commission Against Corruption’” was submitted to the Executive Council for review in August 2024. The aforesaid law and administrative regulation came into force on 1^st October 2024 simultaneously while Law no. 10/2000 was renamed “Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region”.

The CCAC hopes to optimise relevant regimes through law amendment in order to better fulfil its duties, prevent and combat various types of illegal acts in the fight against corruption more effectively and promote the improvement of governance. In addition, it will also optimise the “Integrity Management Plan” with a view to promoting the operation and integrity management of public and private sectors, further responding to the needs of development of the society and the aspirations of residents and assisting the SAR Government to build an increasingly fair, transparent and clean society jointly with the country.

 

CONCLUSION

The CCAC, which was established 25 years ago following the establishment of the Macao SAR, wears the hats of graft-buster and ombudsman. This makes its anti-corruption work in Macao unique and having advantages: investigating and dealing with corruption in a serious manner, fighting against corruption acts through solving cases so as to raise the society’s awareness of the concept of “not having the audacity to commit corruption”; performing the functions of supervision and correction as an ombudsman, urging the government to optimise system establishment and governance, building a preventive system in which one “cannot have the opportunity to commit corruption” in the public sector and setting a good example for the private sector. Through an internal information exchange mechanism and according to the situation, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Ombudsman Bureau of the CCAC intervene in cases appropriately. The Bureaux had once dispatched their staff to carry out on-site joint investigative action regarding cases which might involve corruption crimes and administrative illegalities or improprieties. The joint performance of duties by the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Ombudsman Bureau of the CCAC not only increased the efficiency of investigation, but it also identified the crux of problems precisely. Owing to the priorities of work or the trend of cases observed by the Anti-corruption Bureau and the Ombudsman Bureau, preventive actions in the areas of promotion and education are taken to consolidate the idea of “not having the desire to commit corruption” in the society, including the public and private sectors. As such, the three aspects that encompass investigation, urging of optimisation of systems and prevention are organically integrated and mutually promoted, which make Macao keep moving forward in the fight against corruption.

Over the years, given the situations faced by the society at different stages of development, the focus of integrity work may slightly vary. However, with the concerted support of all sectors of the society, the CCAC has not only achieved the objectives of its governing policies, but the outbreak of the epidemic has also accelerated the pace of moderate transformation of integrity work, which further expands the depth and breadth of the fight against corruption and the upholding of integrity. The word “innovation” has become a representative word for the work of the CCAC over these five years. As the Chinese saying goes, “Change will lead to solution, and thus leads to long-term success.” Whenever the CCAC encounters difficulties, it will actively seek solutions in order to constantly make improvement. Perseverance, sincerity, pragmatism and hard work, coupled with the foundation laid in the actions carried out to fight against corruption by previous terms of the CCAC, are essential for the CCAC to overcome challenges, make constant improvement and achieve its missions.

Despite that the actions to promote integrity are making progress steadily, there is no room for the CCAC to slack off, particularly amid a new era with complex and ever-changing social environment. The CCAC should commit itself to preventing and controlling the risk of corruption and put every effort to eradicate corruption, which is a stumbling block which affects development, in the country and the society of Macao. With the spirit of progression and innovation, the CCAC will continue to exert its efforts in promoting integrity so as to contribute to the stable and lasting implementation of the principle of “one country, two systems” and the political and social harmony of Macao. Promoting a more just, transparent and clean society is always the goal of the CCAC.