Public housing abuse tip-offs may double with reward scheme: Hong Kong minister

Hong Kong’s housing minister has estimated that reports of public flat abuse could double with the launch of the government’s HK$3,000 (US$386) reward scheme for whistle-blowers, but expects only half of the cases will be legitimate.

Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin said on Saturday that the scheme would cost about HK$3 million in the first year and that authorities had already received about 200 complaints of public rental flat misuse in the first two days of its launch.

Ho added that some complainants had mixed up private residences with public rental flats.

The minister revealed the number of tip-offs had spiked since Wednesday, after the city’s main public housing provider, the Housing Authority, began offering rewards of up to HK$3,000 to anyone who provided information allowing the government to reclaim a misused public rental flat.

“About 200 reports were received, but we need to see whether the cases fall under our scheme … some complainants mixed up public rental flats with units under the Home Ownership Scheme and private housing,” she told a radio programme, adding that authorities had to spend time verifying each report.

Ho estimated the annual number of reported abuse cases would reach around 2,600, double that of the previous year, but expected only half of the tip-offs would be confirmable.

Reclaiming half of the housing flats with the help of whistle-blowers could save the government about HK$1.3 billion, given the construction cost of around HK$1 million per home, she said.