An officer of the Architectural Services Department (ASD) was today (Tuesday) charged by the ICAC for alleged misconduct in public office by circumventing the government tendering process for awarding maintenance contracts for various government propertie s.

Yu Wing-cheuk, 45, Property Services Officer of ASD, will appear in Kowloon City Magistracy at 9:30 am tomorrow (Wednesday) on one count of misconduct in public office, contrary to the Common Law.

The case arose from a complaint alleging corruption in relation to ASD's maintenance works. ICAC enquiries uncovered the alleged misconduct offence.

The charge alleges that between May 18, 1999 and May 30, 2000, Yu, in the course of his public office, had wilfully and intentionally culpably misconducted himself in relation to the award of special works orders for maintenance projects in the Tsim Sha T sui district.

Yu was alleged to have circumvented the government tendering process by:

- deciding, prior to obtaining quotations from tenderers, to award the special works orders to King-Post International Co. Ltd., Leds Engineering Co., Mega-Strong Ltd. or Wai Ming Engineering Co.;

- failing to comply with the Government Stores and Procurement Regulations by not inviting competing tenderers to separately provide independent quotations for the special works orders;

- causing the special works orders to be awarded to any one of the beneficiary companies, knowing that there had not been a proper tendering process; and

- deceiving his colleagues into believing that a proper tendering process had taken place in respect of the special works orders and that the quotations received were genuinely competitive ones.

At the time of the alleged offence, Yu oversaw maintenance works for government properties within the Tsim Sha Tsui district.

The defendant has been released on ICAC bail, pending his court appearance tomorrow.