Corruption in the assessment of medicine
Dr A was a consultant of the Clinical Oncology Department in a public hospital. His assessments of the effectiveness of medicines had a great impact on the clinical value as well as the future market value of the medicines. Dr A attended the annual dinner of a pharmaceutical company on behalf of the hospital and met Terry, the CEO of the company.
They maintained close ties after the dinner and Terry always treated Dr A lavishly. Lately, Terry invited Dr A to a dinner at a private club and he mentioned to Dr A that his company had recently developed a new antitumor drug, and the assessment of the effectiveness of the drug happened to be conducted by Dr A’s team. Knowing that Dr A was responsible for the final assessment report of the drug, Terry requested Dr A to give a favourable assessment result in the report. Terry suggested to offer his company’s shares to Dr A in return. Dr A found this an attractive offer as he had been planning to retire in five years.
Dr A was a public servant as he is employed by a public hospital under the Hospital Authority. Terry had breached Section 4 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) for offering Dr A an advantage, in the form of company shares as a return for Dr A’s favourable assessment result in the report . Dr A would also breach the POBO if he accepted the advantage without the permission from the Hospital Authority.
Although entertainment does not fall within the definition of advantage under the POBO, public servants should avoid accepting any lavish, unreasonably generous or frequent entertainment, as it may put them in an obligatory position in the discharge of official duties and compromise their impartiality or judgement.
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