Prisca Tang
The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) said in a statement yesterday that a former administrative officer from the University of Macau (UM) accepted a bribe for a construction project bid.
According to the statement, the CCAC received a UM report about the matter in June, and immediately started an investigation. The statement said that the case involved corruption and document forgery, adding that in the process of bidding for a residential college construction contract, the then administrative officer of the UM Construction and Engineering Section of the Campus Management and Development Office, accepted a bribe and consequently awarded the briber the 220 million pataca project.
The statement did not reveal how much the suspect received from the suborner.
The statement underlined that the suspect allegedly assisted one of the tenderers, forged documents and participated in part of the tender evaluation in the bidding process. As a result, the tenderer’s company was awarded the contract. After the briber won the contract, a company of which the suspect was one of the shareholders was subcontracted to carry out part of the project.
The statement pointed out that the suspect was confirmed to have been engaged in the project’s initial proposal, the tendering process and the tender evaluation yet he never asked the university if he could be recused from the proceedings. The statement said that the suspect was well-informed about the financial budget for the project and suggested to the tenderer to propose an amount within the budget. The statement added that the suspect also used the university’s computer to write up the bidding proposal, stressing that he forged two school project experiences on the document for the briber’s company. The CCAC also discovered that he purposely opened a new company so that he could receive the bribe from the tenderer’s company.
The CCAC also said it discovered that the suspect then shared private information about an on-campus rain shelter project with another construction company and helped that company win the bidding.
According to the statement, the suspect and two other shareholders of his company face bribe-taking and document forgery charges, and the suspect also faces breach of secrecy charges, while the two people from the construction company involved in the UM residential project face bribe-giving and document forgery charges. The statement said that the case has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for follow-up.
This undated handout photo provided by the University of Macau yesterday shows a bird’s eye view of the Hengqin campus.
