By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-22 10:41:29 | Updated at 2025-01-22 13:45:31
3 hours ago
Hong Kong’s ombudsman has urged housing authorities to do more to hold offenders legally accountable for the abuse of public flats amid a prosecution rate of 4.2 per cent last year, even as the government proposes increased penalties.
The watchdog said on Wednesday the city had recorded 12,407 cases of public housing being misused last year, but only 518 involved prosecutions.
Ombudsman Jack Chan Jick-chi said his office had reviewed the prosecution work of the Housing Authority, the city’s major provider of public flats.
“Some cases with enough evidence have still not been followed up after the prosecution period,” he said.
The ombudsman found annual prosecution rates in the past seven years ranged from 1.7 per cent to 4.2 per cent.
Chan added his office had made 31 suggestions for improvement to the authority and the Housing Society, the city’s second-largest provider of public homes.
He said the ideas included exploring the establishment of channels with mainland China and Macau to verify whether tenants owned properties in those jurisdictions.
