Duo charged over suspected third runway bribery
A senior executive of the Airport Authority and the owner of a sub-contractor in the third runway project have been charged with accepting and offering bribes totalling $3.8 million. According to a statement released by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Airport Authority principal manager Ricky Lee, and Ng Kai-on, the proprietor of Carol Engineering Limited, were to appear before Eastern Court for mention on Friday morning. Lee faced two counts of conspiracy for a public servant to accept an advantage, while Ng faced one count of offering an advantage to a public servant. The statement said Lee, who was responsible for supervising various contracts of the third runway project, had allegedly “conspired together with Ng and/or other persons” to accept bribes of about $2.4 million, as an inducement to or reward for being favourably disposed to Carol Engineering. Lee was also charged for allegedly conspiring with another sub-contractor to accept bribes of around $900,000 for helping it secure contracts and expedite payments, the statement said. The charge levelled against Ng was over alleged bribes totalling $500,000 to Lee. The alleged offences took place between October, 2018 and June this year. The pair was arrested along with 28 others earlier this week, after the anti-graft body looked into a complaint in which staff members of the Airport Authority were alleged of bribery by abusing their power in the third runway project. The ICAC arrested four senior employees of the Airport Authority and 26 staff members of main contractors or subcontractors for alleged corruption. The watchdog added it had seized some of the suspected bribes, including cash, luxury watches, fine wines and gold coins in the homes and offices of those arrested.