Eight retired hawker control officers who gave preferential treatment to 36 candidates in a 2019 recruitment exercise have been spared jail in Hong Kong, with a judge saying the case revealed their department’s long-standing culture of favouritism.
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The District Court on Tuesday sentenced the eight former Food and Environmental Hygiene Department staff to between 150 and 240 hours of community service after considering their commendable track records, the one-off nature of the offence and the “disastrous” consequences of some defendants being stripped of their pensions.
The court previously convicted the defendants, now aged 62 to 67, of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office for abusing their positions as either principal or chief hawker control officers who were involved in the recruitment drive between July and August 2019.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) prosecuted the eight after an inquiry found they had compiled and shared among themselves 11 “buddy lists” containing the names of preferred candidates who had applied for the position of assistant hawker control officer.
Around 530 of 2,100 shortlisted candidates passed interviews, including 27 of the 36 favoured applicants. The department, however, invalidated the results after receiving a corruption complaint and held another round of interviews later that year.
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Deputy Judge Veronica Heung Shuk-han said the case revealed the long-standing practice in the department of showing favouritism to friends and associates.