The former chief of the Transport Bureau’s (DSAT) Division of Transport Management, Lou Ngai Wa, was sentenced on Monday to 12 and half years in prison, with a 36,000 patacas fine for his involvement in a public car park management corruption case which took place between 2012 and 2015.
Lou was convicted of corruption, abuse of power and money laundering.
The ruling was handed down by the Court of First Instance (TJB). A total of six defendants were sentenced.
According to the indictment, Pun Ngai, Lou’s subordinate, who was responsible for inspecting the city’s public car parks, and Lou were both accused of taking bribes to help three management firms – Luen Hap, Lam Fong and San Wai Son – get contracts for the management of public car parks between 2012 and 2015.
Lou and Pun were caught by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) last year.
The total contract sum involved in the case reached about 68 million patacas, around 70 percent of the value of the government’s outsourced public car park management agreements at that time.
Lou and Pun, the first and second defendants in the case, denied all the accusations listed in the indictment during a previous hearing.
Pointing out that Lou was the mastermind of the crime and what he did had damaged the government’s credibility, the court said on Monday that Lou had affected the bidding results of 42 public car park management service contracts and told the other defendants when the car parks would be inspected.
In his indictment, Lou had been charged concerning the bidding outcome of 54 contracts.
Moreover, the court said Lou transferred his ill-gotten gains to the mainland to his mistresses, to buy real estate and gamble to launder the bribes.
According to the trial, Lou and Pun collected 16 million patacas in bribes.
The other defendants were handed prison terms ranging between seven years and nine months and four and a half year.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
