A 36-year-old Housing Department officer admitted two alternative charges of misconduct in public office at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on 27 October. She had previously faced two fraud charges, but her plea was to the misconduct charges.
The officer handled applications to add household members to public housing tenancies and applications by non-governmental organisations to hold community activities. Both required approval by a housing affairs manager. In one case, she told a tenant’s daughter that her household-member application had been approved, then added the daughter and her husband to the tenancy’s family list. Separately, she sent a community organisation a letter in the Housing Department’s name saying its activity application had been approved.
The anti-corruption agency found that neither application had been submitted to the manager for approval and that the applicants did not know approval had not been granted. The tenant could have faced penalties for moving in without permission and failing to pay extra rent, while the organisation could have been unable to claim its activity expenses.
The court ordered the officer to compensate the government about HK$34,000, equivalent to the extra rent the tenant should have paid. Sentencing was set for 10 November, and she was granted bail pending receipt of a social service order report.