Macau's graft buster-cum-ombudsman body announced today that it received 479 complaints and denunciations last year, a decrease of 17.9 percent year-on-year.
According to a statement by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) about its 2020 Annual Report, the body handled a total of 491 cases last year, including 105 cases processed by the CCAC's Anti-Corruption Bureau and 282 cases processed by its Ombudsman Bureau.
A total of 100 cases were filed away for failing to meet the legal requirements for an official investigation by the commission, the statement said.
The statement underlined that the number of anonymous complaints and denunciations received last year fell from 54.6 percent of the total in 2019 to 34 percent last year.
Real-name complaints and denunciations reached nearly 60 percent of the total last year, according to the statement, which attributed the figure to citizens' rising awareness of the issue and the "initial results" of the commission's "promotion work".
The statement underlined that in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to which most of the commission's seminars and public events were cancelled or postponed in the first half of last year, the CCAC still held 303 seminars and talks in 2020 targeting public servants, private sector employees, citizens in general, and students of higher education institutions and pupils of primary and secondary schools as well as kindergartens.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 22 last year.
According to the statement, the commission last year also investigated 74 land concession agreements declared expired by the authorities.
The statement underlined that the commission transferred 18 suspected criminal cases to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) in 2020 including eight about alleged fraud involving public funds or fraud-related document forgery.
The commission noted an increase in the number of alleged corruption cases "related to securing job opportunities", involving bribe-giving or bribe-taking "as the means for securing a job, contract renewal or promotion."
"Such cases mainly occurred in gaming, security and construction companies," the report said, adding that the suspects included local and mainland Chinese workers as well as non-resident workers (NRWs) from Southeast Asia.
The commission also said that it would further strengthen supervision of how government subsidies are used.
The CCAC has the power to investigate and detain suspects, but not to lay charges which is the exclusive domain of the Judiciary.
Commissioner Against Corruption Chan Tsz King handed a copy of the 2020 Annual Report to Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng at the Macau Government Headquarters at the end of March.
According to the law on the CCAC, its annual reports must be handed to the chief executive by March 31.
Commissioner Against Corruption Chan Tsz King (left) hands the 2020 Annual Report of the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) to Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng at Government Headquarters in late March. Photo: GCS
