Civil servants have been warned to expect disciplinary action if found using software in the office that has been pirated or downloaded from the Internet.
And bureau and department heads will be asked to assign an in-house inspector to guard against any violation under a proposed crackdown.
The move follows the findings of a recent internal audit at the Housing Department that 13 per cent of 112 computers installed in estate offices were running on illegal software. The discovery was an embarrassing blow to the Government's anti-piracy campaign.
In a paper to be tabled at the Legislative Council panel on information technology and broadcasting, the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau proposes a new Compliance Officer Scheme.
The officer will carry out audits and help bureau chiefs or department heads to keep an inventory of users' software and in which offices it has been installed.
