Bid-rigging scheme: Hong Kong judge jails renovation subcontractor, calls for more industry regulation
He urges city’s government to set up a statutory body following first case involving building irregularities to be successfully prosecuted in recent years
A judge yesterday urged the government to set up a statutory body to regulate building renovation, as he sentenced a subcontractor to 35 months in jail for a rigged HK$260 million bill project that has alarmed Hong Kong’s homeowners.
District Court judge Josiah Lam Wai-kuen made the remarks after he passed the sentence on Yau Shui-tin, who blew the whistle on the bid-rigging project in Sha Tin’s Garden Vista that he helped arranged, resulting in at least HK$45 million being paid out.
This is the first case involving building management irregularities that has been successfully prosecuted in recent years, amid a string of bid-rigging allegations across the city in which contractors usually pay companies to select them for the bids.
Lam noted that the government had been promoting building renovation and providing relevant subsidies, but the lack of regulation was being exploited by criminals.
Though the “Smart Tender” building rehabilitation facilitating services pilot scheme by the Urban Renewal Authority provided professional opinion to applicants, Lam, who said he was speaking in the capacity of a home-owner, noted that the scheme had limitations.
He therefore suggested: “However it would be called… a statutory body should be set up for regulation.”