Duo charged with $168,000 retraining funding fraud
2020-1-21
An assistant principal and a former employee of a training body have been charged by the ICAC today (January 21) with conspiracy to defraud the Employees Retraining Board (ERB) of funding totalling about $168,000 by falsifying the attendance records of course participants.
Cho Man-wo, 34, assistant principal of Hong Kong School of Commerce (HKSC), and Cheung Ho-cheung, 32, former project coordinator of HKSC, face a joint charge of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to Common Law.
The defendants will appear at the West Kowloon Magistracy on Thursday (January 23) for plea.
The case arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the above alleged offence.
In February 2015, the ERB signed a four-year service contract with HKSC, one of its training bodies, for providing different retraining courses. Cho and Cheung were respectively the assistant principal and project coordinator of HKSC responsible for managing ERB’s retraining courses provided by the school.
Before the commencement of each financial year, HKSC would apply for allocation of training places to run retraining courses approved by the ERB. It could apply for additional training places to run additional retraining courses in the same financial year if it could fulfil ERB’s requirements, including attaining an average attendance rate of 80 per cent or above for a particular course.
At the material time, “Foundation Certificate in Preparation for LCCI Level 1 Bookkeeping Examination (Part-time)” (the bookkeeping course) was one of the approved retraining courses run by HKSC under ERB’s funding.
The charge alleges that between June 2017 and March 2018, Cho and Cheung conspired together to defraud the ERB by dishonestly compiling false attendance records of students of the bookkeeping course; submitting those records to the ERB in support of HKSC’s applications for additional training places; and inducing the ERB into approving those applications and related funding for the provision of additional training places to HKSC.
It is alleged that as a result, the ERB approved HKSC’s applications for 44 additional training places and reimbursement of training costs totalling about $168,000 for running two additional retraining courses.
The ERB has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.
The defendants have been released on ICAC bail, pending their court appearance on Thursday.
Cho Man-wo, 34, assistant principal of Hong Kong School of Commerce (HKSC), and Cheung Ho-cheung, 32, former project coordinator of HKSC, face a joint charge of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to Common Law.
The defendants will appear at the West Kowloon Magistracy on Thursday (January 23) for plea.
The case arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the above alleged offence.
In February 2015, the ERB signed a four-year service contract with HKSC, one of its training bodies, for providing different retraining courses. Cho and Cheung were respectively the assistant principal and project coordinator of HKSC responsible for managing ERB’s retraining courses provided by the school.
Before the commencement of each financial year, HKSC would apply for allocation of training places to run retraining courses approved by the ERB. It could apply for additional training places to run additional retraining courses in the same financial year if it could fulfil ERB’s requirements, including attaining an average attendance rate of 80 per cent or above for a particular course.
At the material time, “Foundation Certificate in Preparation for LCCI Level 1 Bookkeeping Examination (Part-time)” (the bookkeeping course) was one of the approved retraining courses run by HKSC under ERB’s funding.
The charge alleges that between June 2017 and March 2018, Cho and Cheung conspired together to defraud the ERB by dishonestly compiling false attendance records of students of the bookkeeping course; submitting those records to the ERB in support of HKSC’s applications for additional training places; and inducing the ERB into approving those applications and related funding for the provision of additional training places to HKSC.
It is alleged that as a result, the ERB approved HKSC’s applications for 44 additional training places and reimbursement of training costs totalling about $168,000 for running two additional retraining courses.
The ERB has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.
The defendants have been released on ICAC bail, pending their court appearance on Thursday.