Under Civil Service Regulation 444 (2), gifts offered to a civil servant by virtue of the official position are regarded as advantages to the department in which the officer works. In circumstances where it is considered inappropriate to return the gifts to the donor, the officer should report and hand over to the department the gifts received for disposal.

Also under section 4 of the POBO, a Government officer soliciting or accepting any advantage as an inducement, reward or reason for abusing his official power or position in his official capacity shall be guilty of an offence with a maximum fine of HK$500,000 and imprisonment for 7 years.

Under section 4 of the POBO, no Government officer shall solicit or accept any advantage as an inducement, reward or reason for doing or not doing any act in his capacity as a Government officer; the offeror of the advantage shall also be guilty of an offence.

According to section 4 of the POBO, an employee of a public body shall not solicit or accept any advantage because of work unless prior written permission has been obtained from the public body.

If both the offeror and receiver believe the advantage involves the employee using his power to offer a favour to the offeror of the advantage, they are in breach of section 4 of the POBO even though that employee does not have the required power, or does not intend to or actually does not offer any favour at his official duties.

The POBO has not specified any threshold or ceiling of allowable advantages for the purpose of corruption offences under the POBO. The receiver/offeror will commit an offence if he accepts/offers an advantage of any value if it falls into any of the corrupt dealings as specified in the relevant sections of the POBO (see section 1.1 of this Guide). Hence, the key factors are the purpose/motive and the circumstances of the acceptance/offer, not the value.

Yes, one may commit an offence of section 8 of the POBO if he, while having dealing with a public body, offers any advantage to any public servant employed by that public body. Whether or not the offeror has his employer"s permission to offer advantage is irrelevant.