ICAC - Dark Side of the Coin - Bus Driver Corruption & Theft Case | The Duty Roster Case Forewarns and Open Secret

As early as 1980, CMB employees had been targets of a corruption investigation. After interviewing about 300 CMB staff, it was revealed that between 1977 and 1980, a number of bus drivers were exhorted into paying bribes to senior drivers. The senior drivers would then arrange with duty allocation officers to put bribe-paying drivers on preferred routes.

ICAC investigations further indicated that there existed at least 15 corruption syndicates in the company, each comprising 20 to 100 people. Each syndicate would pay bribes to individual duty allocation officer in the pretext of special occasions such as festivals or the monthly feasts held amongst staff. Each payment ranged from $200 to $1,000.

Finally, a number of law-breaking CMB staff were charged with offering or accepting bribes. A senior driver who pleaded guilty before trial was put under probation order while a duty allocation officer and his assistant were respectively sentenced to one year and 18 months in jail.

What were “preferred routes”? Why were drivers willing to dig into their pockets to secure the rights of driving on these “preferred routes”?

P.K. Ng, then a Principal Investigator and was involved in the investigation then, explained: “Some drivers liked to work on routes closer to their residences so that their families could bring them meals during breaks. Some wished to drive on routes around upmarket residential areas or commercial districts because of the refined passenger pools. The most sought-after routes were the cross-harbour-tunnel routes. Because buses deployed to these routes were normally new and journey times were relatively short. Bus drivers on these routes were also allowed longer than normal lunch break of half-an-hour. Tunnel bus drivers hence were living a far more comfortable life than those working on other routes, who could only take a bite or two at the terminals. Even the overtime pay was more generous. But more importantly …

Investigations showed that some criminal-minded CMB workers were eyeing the higher fares charged by tunnel buses, which meant they could lay their hands on larger fare boxes. It was little wonder that some would resort to bribery in order to sit behind the wheel of tunnel buses. The theft of bus fares from those routes indeed had been a common occurrence for some time.

China Motor Bus Company Profile

The company was set up in 1933 and was licensed to operate franchised bus services. It had depots in Chai Wan, North Point and Wong Chuk Hang.
It operated 86 bus routes on the Hong Kong Island and 16 cross-harbour-tunnel buses routes jointly with the Kowloon Motor Bus Company. It carried on average about 780,000 passengers a day.
From 1980 onwards, CMB switched all its buses to one-man operation with the fare collection box placed next to the driver.
In February 1981, CMB was granted fare increases between 20 and 40 per cent, costing commuters 60 cents to $2 for each journey.
Unsatisfactory CMB services prompted the Government to open up CMB routes for bidding in 1992, effectively putting an end to the company’s franchised operation.

Source: Hong Kong Year Books

Open Secret

The take-home-pay of an average worker was low during the early 1980s. “Using low wages and poor remuneration as an excuse, some unscrupulous CMB employees began pilfering coins from the fare collection boxes. Such criminal acts soon evolved into a common practice and the number of people implicated was massive. The company management was aware of such occurrences, yet they chose not to face the problem,” recalled Danny Lo, then a Chief Investigator.

Witnessing blatant stealing everyday, the frail-minded could not resist but to join in the crime. There were also drivers who, frightened and fearful of being edged out, dared not put up resistance and were dragged aboard the theft wagon.

Besides the battered driver who lodged a complaint with the ICAC, there were also honest CMB employees who disapproved of the crime and dissociated themselves with from law-breaking workmates. One after another they reported to the ICAC the corrupt deeds of some drivers, and how they conspired with other CMB staff to deplete the fare boxes on their way back to the depots.

“To tackle these corruption and theft cases, we had made use of the most sophisticated tape recorder of the time. We wrapped it under the shirts of the assisting drivers and set out to collect evidence,” said P.K. Ng. The state-of-the-art tape recorder some 20-odd years ago, according to him, still measured that of a pocket-sized novel!

One Flat in 12 Months

The monthly salary of an average CMB worker was around $1,000 in the early 1980s. ICAC investigations revealed, however, that the looting was so unfettered that a worker could steal up to $500 worth of coins each day. This would amount to $13,000 given a 26-day month, or 13 months of official wages. One year of uninterrupted stealing could afford the purchase of one a 500-square-feet residential flat in Wan Chai in those days.

one_flat_table

Sound bite of Hans Wong
(in Cantonese only)

“They stole as much as several hundred dollars a day. Say they worked for 26 days a month, pocketing an average of 500 dollars each time, it meant they got $13,000 from the crime. The monthly wage back then was not much, about $1,000. They could not stop stealing because everybody in the office did so…everyone knew each other, and if you did not follow what the others did, you’d be cut out. You might not wish to take the money, you were scared and yet you had to work with them day in and day out. It was truly a dilemma.”