The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) announced Thursday that acting on a tip-off it discovered a case of subsidy fraud amounting to about 1.04 million patacas.
According to a CCAC statement, the case was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) yesterday. While the CCAC has the power to investigate and detain suspects, it does not have the power to lay criminal charges.
The statement said the suspect was the leader of a local association. It neither revealed the name of the association nor the gender or surname of the suspect.
According to the statement, the suspect provided several public entities with false information to obtain the subsidies in 2011.
The Health Bureau (SSM), Macau Foundation (FM) and Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture were allegedly defrauded by the suspect.
The suspect hid the fact that he applied simultaneously for the same kind of subsidy to the Health Bureau and Macau Foundation, declaring in the respective applications that he was not requesting financial assistance from any other public entity.
Consequently, he received the same kind of subsidies from different entities for the same purported objective.
The suspect allegedly also told the entities that the association was running a deficit and therefore was unable to repay its unused subsidies.
The statement also accused the suspect of the submission of false and incomplete information as well as exaggerated expense accounts.
The statement said that the suspect had admitted to the crime, adding that if found guilty he or she would face a prison term ranging from three to 10 years for document forgery and fraud.(macaunews/macaupost)
