Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário said on Tuesday that he has decided to appointed Cheong Sio Kei, who was acquitted of a power abuse charge by the Court of First Instance (TJB) last week, as the deputy director of the Mapping and Land Registry Bureau (DSCC), after considering that it’s difficult to find an official in Macao for senior positions.
“In Macao, there are not many people who are capable [of assuming a senior government post],” the policy secretary told reporters after attending a committee meeting in the Legislative Assembly (AL).
Rosário pointed out Cheong has recently been acquitted by the court of an alleged criminal offence so that he has decided to reappoint him.
In an executive order published in the Official Gazette (BO) last week, Rosário appointed Cheong as the deputy director of the Mapping and Land Registry Bureau effective from June 10.
Cheong started to work in the Mapping and Land Registry Bureau as a public servant when he joined the public administration in 1993 when Macao was still under Portuguese administration. Cheong was the bureau’s deputy director between November 1998 and December 1999. Cheong had been the acting director of the bureau since the establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) in December 1999 until June 2009 when the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) was established and he was appointed as its first director.
Cheong returned to the Mapping and Land Registry Bureau in June 2014 when he was appointed as its director.
Cheong resigned from his post as the director of the Mapping and Land Registry Bureau in June last year. This came after the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) 2018 Annual Report published last year revealed that a then senior official of the Environmental Protection Bureau was alleged to have abused his power by arranging for a female colleague to accompany him on his working visits on multiple occasions, including a trip to Portugal in 2013. Local media outlets identified the senior official as Cheong.
(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)
PHOTO © TDM
