Last Friday, the Court of First Instance acquitted the former vice president of Cultural Affairs Bureau Stephen Chan Chak Seng of abuse of power and breaches of confidentiality obligations regarding allegations of helping his brother obtain a service contract outsourced by the Bureau in 2008. Nevertheless, the court convicted the former official of two charges regarding the declaration of incorrect information in his 2008 and 2010 property submissions, as well as another charge on property of unknown origin, imposing a fine of MOP420,000 (US$52,500) on the official. Following the court’s ruling, Mr. Chan told reporters that he had never made any mistakes related to public affairs, claiming that the allegations had had a great impact on him, according to Chinese language newspaper Macao Daily. The ex-official added that he would decide whether to file an appeal on the court’s decision after studying the verdict with his lawyer. In 2011, the city’s graft watchdog – the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) – found that the ex-civil worker was suspected of deliberately revealing quotations offered by other bidders for a maintenance service contract to his younger brother in order to have him adjudicated the contract, which violates the functional obligation of confidentiality of public servants. But the lowest court ruled last week that there was no solid evidence proving that Chan’s brother is a partner in the company that was awarded the service contract, or that the former vice Bureau head had revealed the quotations of other bidders to his sibling. Mr. Chan stepped down from his position as his term was terminated by the then Secretary for Culture and Social Affairs in August 2012.
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