Chapter 9
Epilogue
The ICAC provides corruption prevention information and services to stakeholders of the education sector, including the Education Bureau, the HKEAA, universities, primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, with a view to strengthening their system resistance to corruption. After the case was uncovered, the Corruption Prevention Department of the ICAC reviewed the procedures and practices of the HKEAA in respect of the appointment and administration of part-time examination personnel, followed by recommendations to enhance its mechanism for appointment, integrity management and supervision. A scenario-based pamphlet on Corruption Prevention for Examination Personnel was also compiled to remind stakeholders of the common corruption traps and the relevant legal requirements.
In parallel, the Community Relations Department of the ICAC also organised capacity building sessions for practitioners in the education sector in a bid to enhance their awareness of corruption prevention.
One of the biggest challenges faced by the investigating officers was the huge amount of paperwork in the initial stage. By examining the piles of score sheets of the candidates concerned, the officers tried to find the evidence against those candidates who got high marks because of the alleged criminal conduct.
With the help of the HKEAA, we obtained 120,000 papers, including the score sheets of all candidates of the year. We cross-checked the student list of the tutorial school and found the score sheets of those students attending the tutorial school in the hope of finding the evidence against the correlation between the leaks and the high scores obtained by those students. However, we could not establish a connection between them.”
“We really wanted to find out how cheating by ways of question leaks affected the education system of Hong Kong. However, it was not an easy task. We could not say for sure if students attending the tutorial school got high marks because they had known the examination questions in advance,” recalled the investigating officer.
Yet, the investigating officer added that with full assistance offered by the HKEAA throughout the investigation, their determination was further strengthened to track down the leakers and plug the system loopholes to level the playing field for public examinations.