Hong Kong sets up joint taskforce to tackle bid-rigging in building maintenance
Hong Kong's security chief announced the formation of a joint taskforce involving police, anti-graft and competition authorities to combat bid-rigging in building maintenance. The move follows a probe into a fire at Wang Fuk Court that uncovered organised crime links to rigged tenders, with plans to
Hong Kong's Secretary for Security has announced the establishment of a joint taskforce to crack down on bid-rigging in building maintenance works, following a damning report into a fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. Speaking in the Legislative Council on 4 November 2026, the secretary said an independent commission's report into the blaze had revealed serious bid-rigging problems in large-scale maintenance projects, with suspected triad members manipulating tender results and colluding with consultants, professionals and contractors in corruption schemes.
The government, he said, was treating the report with the utmost seriousness and had launched a comprehensive review of long-standing institutional weaknesses. Reforms were being pushed through to plug loopholes and root out all criminal activities by bid-rigging syndicates, which he described as organised, planned and highly secretive illegal groups that forced many property owners to bear unreasonable project costs and severely eroded market order.
The taskforce, personally overseen by the security secretary, brings together the Hong Kong Police Force, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). It will be led by the deputy commissioner of police (operations), the head of the ICAC's operations division, the CMA's chief executive and a senior police officer from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau. The taskforce aims to enhance intelligence sharing, coordinate joint operations and strengthen risk prevention.
Under the new intelligence-sharing mechanism, the three agencies will share information from the outset rather than waiting until late in an investigation. Any suspicious leads will be jointly assessed immediately, making it harder for individuals to conceal their identities or connections through shell companies, overlapping project involvement or shared interests in incorporated owners' committees.
On joint operations, the taskforce will coordinate enforcement actions using each agency's statutory powers and investigative tools, allowing simultaneous probes from different angles. Once bid-rigging in building maintenance is criminalised, a dual-track enforcement model combining criminal and civil penalties will be deployed to fully clamp down on such practices.
Preventively, the three member agencies will attend owners' committee meetings on a risk-based basis, coordinated by the Home Affairs Bureau. For large-scale maintenance projects involving substantial sums, early risk assessments will be conducted and authorities will intervene proactively at the preparatory or tender stage to gather evidence and prevent harm before it occurs.
The secretary noted that the police, ICAC and CMA had already conducted joint operations against bid-rigging syndicates in recent years, including the criminal investigation into the Wang Fuk Court fire. With the formal establishment of the taskforce, cooperation would be elevated from ad hoc case coordination to a permanent, institutionalised mechanism for intelligence sharing and joint enforcement, he said.