Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam Chon Weng said on Thursday that the government has decided that the former and current chiefs of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) will have to subject themselves to disciplinary proceedings – including ex-president Guilherme Ung Vai Meng.
Tam made the remarks while speaking to reporters after attending the opening ceremony of a responsible gaming promotion forum organised by the Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM) at Grand Lisboa.
A hard-hitting report released by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) early last month slammed the bureau for having hired a large number of staff on “unjustified” acquisition of services (AoS) contracts.
The CCAC report says that the bureau failed to publish its legally required recruitment announcements, but instead conveyed its intention of hiring staff to colleagues and friends by “word of mouth”, which, according to the report, violated the principle of openness in recruitment procedures in the public sector.
In the report, the anti-graft body says the number of staff hired by the bureau through AoS contracts stood at 58 in 2010 and 110 in 2015.
Tam spoke to the media yesterday when asked whether Ung or the bureau’s current leadership will be held accountable for the hiring fiasco.
Tam said that he has recently received a report from the bureau detailing the matter, adding that the report will soon be submitted to the CCAC.
The Secretary said that after his legal advisors had studied the report, he decided that the former and top officials of the bureau are to undergo disciplinary proceedings, namely Ung, Leung – then IC vice-president, as well as Chan Peng Fai – then IC vice-president. Chan is currently one of the two IC vice presidents. Leung has headed the bureau since February when Ung retired from the civil service.
Tam said that the disciplinary proceedings were already underway, adding that the government would make a decision on the measures to be taken once it is completed.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
