28 arrested in crackdown as bid-rigging task force launches first operation

Hong Kong authorities have cracked down on a bid-rigging syndicate and arrested 28 people, including directors of contractors and consultancy firms as well as some with triad backgrounds, in the first operation by a joint task force after the devastating Wang Fuk Court fire.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said the task force, set up to combat bid-rigging, had also formed a 24-hour hotline for the public to report any suspected bid-rigging activities and would offer monetary rewards in appropriate circumstances.

The arrests are the first since a damning report on the blaze by an independent committee was released last week.

Tang told a press conference that the government took action after discovering a triad-related bid-rigging group was pushing through deals before more measures came into effect.

“They hoped to ‘take the last bus’ and used excuses such as price fluctuations of materials, urgency to start the projects, to trick owners to quickly sign the contracts, and so they could choose the project consultants and contractors of the syndicate,” Tang said.

“They hoped to seek exorbitant profits at the last minute.”

Senior officials from the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Competition Commission also attended the press conference.

The joint task force – involving police, the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Competition Commission – was set up to combat crimes related to bid-rigging in maintenance projects following the release of the committee’s report.

The housing estate was undergoing large-scale renovation works when the blaze broke out last November, killing 168 people.

The government also announced last week that it was set to criminalise bid-rigging in building maintenance projects under laws covering triad and corruption offences and allow authorities to take criminal or civil action against such conduct.

The change will introduce a criminal offence with penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment and fines.

According to the committee’s report, bid-rigging and associated misconduct may involve multiple parties such as building contractors, consultants, property management companies, middlemen, building management committee members and even homeowners, with some of them having triad affiliations.

The committee said that while it was not within its scope to determine whether there had been bid-rigging in the Wang Fuk Court case, there were “numerous features of that project which bore the hallmarks of bid-rigging and anti-competitive conduct”.