HK Proposes legal amendments to criminalize tender-rigging

The government proposed legal amendments to criminalise tender-rigging in building maintenance projects following a major fire at Wang Fuk Court.

The proposed changes cover four types of anti-competitive conduct, while a newly established joint task force would be empowered to attend property owners' meetings to monitor suspicious activities.

Authorities stressed efforts to combat tender-rigging had been ongoing.

Chief Executive John Lee said the issue behind the Wang Fuk Court fire stemmed from tender-rigging, but the existing Competition Ordinance only provided civil regulation.

Authorities planned to amend three laws.

Under proposed changes to the Competition Ordinance, tender-rigging in major building maintenance projects would be criminalised, covering four serious anti-competitive practices: bid-rigging, price-fixing, market-sharing, and output limitation, as well as preliminary tenders for engineering consultants.

Offenders could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 10 million dollars, three times the illegal gains, or half of their annual local turnover during the offence period.

The civil regime would also be enhanced with higher financial penalties.

Criminal offences would be included under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, enabling law enforcement to compel information and freeze assets.

Amendments to the Independent Commission Against Corruption Ordinance were also planned to strengthen evidence collection.

A multi-departmental task force comprising senior officials from the Police, the ICAC, and the Competition Commission was established to share intelligence and attend property owners' meetings.

CHRIS TANG Secretary for Security said,"As I said, in fact, our three separate departments, we already have robust investigative procedures in investigating those cases -- more or less -- more individually and at some stage they will do joint operations.But now, with the joint task force, starting from an initial complaint or initial receiving of any information or at an early stage of any suspected syndication, we will start to share the intelligence."

Authorities aimed to submit the amendment bills to LegCo within this year, targeting passage by April next year.