Chief Building Services Engineer faces court for alleged $3.3m bribery and misconduct
2002-4-2
A Chief Building Services Engineer of the Housing Department (HD) appeared at Eastern Magistracy this (Tuesday) morning for allegedly accepting $3.36 million in bribes and for alleged misconduct in public office.
No plea was taken from Chan Kau-tai, 57, charged by the ICAC with a total of 16 counts of bribery offences and one count of misconduct in public office.
Magistrate Ms Julia Livesey adjourned the case to April 30, 2002 for mention.
Chan was granted bail of $500,000 in cash and $500,000 in own recognizance, and was ordered not to leave Hong Kong, surrender his travel documents and not to interfere with prosecution witnesses.
Fourteen of the charges alleged Chan of accepting and conspiring to accept $3.16 million in total from a number of Housing Authority (HA) approved contractors and suppliers for rendering them assistance in relation to business transactions with the HA and / or HD, and their performance of works.
Another two bribery charges, which were alternative to each other, alleged Chan of accepting $200,000 from an HA supplier for assisting the supplier's son in relation to the application for a government contract engineer post.
Chan was further charged with one count of misconduct in public office, contrary to the Common Law.
The charge stated that whilst being a Chief Building Services Engineer of HD, Chan did a series of acts calculated to injure the public interest over the installation of room coolers in an HA project.
The alleged offences took place between March 1998 and August 2001.
The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Stanley Chan, assisted by ICAC officer Eric Tong.
No plea was taken from Chan Kau-tai, 57, charged by the ICAC with a total of 16 counts of bribery offences and one count of misconduct in public office.
Magistrate Ms Julia Livesey adjourned the case to April 30, 2002 for mention.
Chan was granted bail of $500,000 in cash and $500,000 in own recognizance, and was ordered not to leave Hong Kong, surrender his travel documents and not to interfere with prosecution witnesses.
Fourteen of the charges alleged Chan of accepting and conspiring to accept $3.16 million in total from a number of Housing Authority (HA) approved contractors and suppliers for rendering them assistance in relation to business transactions with the HA and / or HD, and their performance of works.
Another two bribery charges, which were alternative to each other, alleged Chan of accepting $200,000 from an HA supplier for assisting the supplier's son in relation to the application for a government contract engineer post.
Chan was further charged with one count of misconduct in public office, contrary to the Common Law.
The charge stated that whilst being a Chief Building Services Engineer of HD, Chan did a series of acts calculated to injure the public interest over the installation of room coolers in an HA project.
The alleged offences took place between March 1998 and August 2001.
The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Stanley Chan, assisted by ICAC officer Eric Tong.