Eight retired hawker management officers who gave preferential therapy to 36 candidates in a 2019 recruitment train have been spared jail in Hong Kong, with a decide saying the case revealed their division’s long-standing tradition of favouritism.
The District Court docket on Tuesday sentenced the eight former Meals and Environmental Hygiene Division employees to between 150 and 240 hours of group service after contemplating their commendable monitor data, the one-off nature of the offence and the “disastrous” penalties of some defendants being stripped of their pensions.
The court docket beforehand convicted the defendants, now aged 62 to 67, of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public workplace for abusing their positions as both principal or chief hawker management officers who have been concerned within the recruitment drive between July and August 2019.
Round 530 of two,100 shortlisted candidates handed interviews, together with 27 of the 36 favoured candidates. The division, nonetheless, invalidated the outcomes after receiving a corruption grievance and held one other spherical of interviews later that yr.
Deputy Decide Veronica Heung Shuk-han stated the case revealed the long-standing follow within the division of displaying favouritism to mates and associates.
