Macau, China, 04 Apr – The Legislative Assembly (AL) passed Thursday the general outline of a governmentdrafted bill that will extend the investigative powers of the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) from the public to the private sector .
The draft law was narrowly passed with 15 votes , two nays and 10 abstentions.
Lawyer Leonel Alberto Alves and businessman Fong Chi Keong voted against the bill.
The Macau Post Daily said deputy Fong Chi Keong rejected the bill as “hastily drafted and immature,” claiming that its articles were “very vague and confusing.” The plenary session was attended by 28 of the legislature’s 29 members.
After the vote, the bill will now be discussed in detail on committee level before it will return to another plenary session for an article by article vote.
Legislative Assembly President Susana Chou pointed out that it was the first time in the past decade that a governmentdrafted bill was only passed by a narrow margin .
She said that due to the narrow margin, the government ought to listen to various opinions during the bill’s upcoming committee level discussions .
(MacauNews)
