Eight hawker control officers in Hong Kong have been sentenced to up to 240 hours of community service after being convicted of misconduct in public office in April for giving preferential treatment to some job applicants.
Deputy District Judge Veronica Heung on Tuesday handed down sentences to eight defendants, aged between 61 and 67, who were working for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) when they committed the misconduct in 2019.
According to local media reports, the defendants – Lo Sai-wah, Li Tat-chiu, Tai Cheuk-fai, Danny Yik, Mak Wai-chung, Tang Wing-ping, Wong Wai-hung, and Chan Kong-chung – were each given community service orders ranging from 150 to 240 hours.
At the centre of the case was a February 2019 recruitment exercise for the role of assistant hawker control officer. The FEHD received more than 5,000 applications at the time, with around 2,100 candidates shortlisted for interview.
The defendants were said to have reviewed interview schedules and compiled a list of “own buddies” to identify candidates with personal connections, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in April.
The list was later circulated among the defendants, with seven serving on the selection board, to afford favourable treatment to those candidates.
The ICAC said that 36 out of 950 job applicants who attended interviews were marked as “own buddies.” Some were awarded bonus marks during the interviews, the anti-graft watchdog revealed in April.
After the misconduct came to light, the FEHD annulled the interview results and conducted a new round of interviews in November 2019.
