The Commissioner Against Corruption, Chan Tsz King, submitting the 2021 Annual Report of the CCAC of Macao to the Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng.
The 2021 Annual Report of the Commission Against Corruption of Macao was published in the Official Gazette of the Macao Special Administrative Region today (3rd August). It is pointed out in the report that, in 2021, despite facing the recurrent and ever-changing outbreak of novel coronavirus, the CCAC sustained its effort in making progress on its work in an orderly manner with an aim to accomplish its different tasks with all-out efforts.
In 2021, the CCAC focused on the safeguard of clean election by fully preparing beforehand and deploying a lot of resources for the supervision of the Legislative Assembly Elections. Despite rolling out an array of publicity activities, the CCAC also provided various platforms and channels to receive electoral complaints or reports. It also took initiative to inspect different kinds of premises where electoral bribery was likely to occur, focus on catering activities and activities where civic associations gave gifts and elderly allowance. Upon completion of the elections, a total of 13,089 inspections were carried out and 28 investigation files were opened, including four investigation files and two minor infringement files. Summaries of some of the cases have been included in the report. The CCAC points out that it has quickly investigated and processed the cases of illegalities related to the elections according to law, achieving the effect of all-round prevention and suppression beforehand, throughout the process and afterwards.
In the year, the CCAC received a total of 712 complaints or reports, of which 179 involved elections. Upon collating and consolidating the complaints or reports with the same objectives, the cases which met the conditions to be placed on file were sent to the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Ombudsman Bureau for follow-up work, with a total of 119 and 226 respectively. In addition, a total of 310 cases which did not meet the conditions to be placed on file were archived or transferred to other competent departments for handling.
As to corruption fighting, the CCAC not only succeeded in hunting down a former leader of the former Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (currently the Land and Urban Construction Bureau) who had been living in the Chinese mainland for a long time but also detected multiple cases involving occupational crimes and disciplinary offences committed by public servants as well as cases involving bribery in the private sector. In addition, in 2021, there was an evident decrease in cases involving fraud over various public funds compared with previous years, proving the effectiveness of the forceful crackdowns on fraud over public money that the CCAC has been carrying out for many years and constant improvement of system building.
As regards ombudsman actions, a few cases with the same or similar objectives were consolidated and handled together by the CCAC and the comprehensive investigation mechanism was adopted. As a result, there was a decrease in the case backlogs and the CCAC was also able to collate and analyse the administrative phenomena found in some cases, which enabled it to give suggestions to the departments or administrative bodies concerned in a unified way. The CCAC found that many complaints stemmed from a lack of communication and inadequate information transparency, and it therefore suggested that the relevant departments or administrative bodies strengthen communication with residents. It is commendable that the relevant departments or administrative bodies readily accepted the CCAC’s opinions and that some of them even positively initiated interdepartmental cooperation and communication mechanisms. The CCAC also included those cases in the list of “retrospective review” appropriately so as to review and track the relevant improvements in a timely manner.
In 2021, the CCAC continued to optimise the complaint management mechanism by introducing the service for real-name complainants to make enquiries on the handling progress in the online complaint system, thus further increasing public confidence in the work of the CCAC and consolidating their proper and responsible sense of filing reports. The CCAC states that it understands some citizens have expectation for the complaint system through which their problems can be solved thoroughly. However, it should be pointed out that the CCAC investigates the facts as an independent third party with an aim to urge the departments to make improvement in case of administrative illegalities or improprieties, but such act will neither suspend nor extend the period within which the interested party has the right to raise objections and judicial appeals to the competent departments. Therefore, the citizens should still grasp the time to protect their own rights through other means conferred by the law at the same time.
For publicity and education, in 2021, the CCAC not only focused on launching clean election publicity activities, it also continued its effort in rolling out clean election publicity activities for secondary and primary schools as well as the public and private sectors. Regarding exchange and cooperation, in order to tie in with the policies to fight the pandemic, the CCAC has changed its former ways of conducting exchanges. Instead, it mostly participated in online meetings, seminars and trainings. Since the pandemic in the Chinese mainland and Macao was relatively stable in 2021, in January and February, the CCAC successively went to the nine municipalities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to visit the Guangdong Provincial Commissions for Discipline Inspection and Supervision and other municipal Commissions for Discipline Inspection and Supervision. Also, it conducted a study tour at the education bases for anti-corruption and other enterprises which served as role models for integrity in different places.
The Annual Report has been submitted to the Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, in accordance withtheOrganic Law of the Commission Against Corruption of the Macao Special Administrative Region. Summaries of some of the cases handled by the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Ombudsman Bureau were included. The full text of the Annual Report can bedownloadedfrom the CCAC's website.