MACAU
The recent corruption case brought against a senior and long-serving Macau Public Servant has sparked a debate over the extent of misuse of office in the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR).
News that Jaime Carion (pictured), a former Director of the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) was being investigated by the Commission Against Corruption broke in late June. However, since then no further details have emerged.
Mr Carion was appointed to head the DSSOPT in 1998 and only retired in late 2014. He or his family own about 40 properties, all of which have been seized by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Sources within the administration have pointed out that while Macau’s Chief Executive can serve only two terms of five years, there is no time limit for the tenure of senior Public Servants.
This is now coming under heavy criticism from political observers as a possible breeding ground for corruption.
Lawmaker, Agnes Lam Iok Fong believes there should be “horizontal mobility” among senior officials to minimise the possibility of them conducting illegal practices as a result of getting too familiar with the day-to-day routines of their jobs.
“We should also consider how much expertise in a certain area an official must have to head a Government Department,” Ms Lam said.
Investigations have found that three Departmental Secretaries had been in their posts for at least 15 years at the time Mr Carion retired. Ms Lam said this was not at all unusual.
“I believe we should follow the example of mainland China where officials are moved from one Department to another on a regular basis,” Ms Lam said.
“In nearly two decades of the establishment of the Macau SAR, the Government has rolled out several initiatives to improve the Civil Service system but none have yet successfully addressed the horizontal movement of Civil Servants or the setting up of a definite tenure for principal and leading officials.”
Macau, 11 August, 2019
