Edmond introduced his friend Anthony to work under his wing in a small I.T. company.  Felix, the company boss, had complained to Edmond for several months about Anthony’s work performance.  Anthony’s procrastination and being unnecessarily thorough was well-known in the company.  Felix just managed to tolerate the situation because he did not want to upset Edmond who brought large profits to the company.  Felix also told Edmond in confidence that Anthony was not the person whom the company needed and could be replaced by someone who was more efficient and yet cheaper.

As a friend, Edmond wondered if he should personally warn Anthony in advance so that Anthony could get prepared.  If Felix was right, terminating Anthony might be for the best interest of the company as well as for Edmond to maintain a good relationship with Felix.  On the other hand, leaking out the news in advance might also damage Felix’s trust and affect staff morale.

To tell Anthony or not to tell Anthony? That was the question worrying Edmond!

Tony was a Customer Services Officer of a telephone company.  He tried his best in whatever he was assigned to do.  Very soon, he made a name for himself as a hardworking and responsible young officer.  Soon he got to know a lot of people working in his section.  One of them was Curtis.

Curtis was a part-time phone salesman working with Tony in the same team.  He had contacts everywhere and could gain entry to many exclusive clubs.  He treated Tony to dinners in the evenings, and sometimes even golf trips across the border on Sundays.

Tony picked up golf eagerly. He loved the greens and enjoyed the leisurely pace of the sport.  What was more was the pride of being among the well-to-dos in town.  He wished he had his own golf-membership but he knew it was almost impossible, given his present income and connections.

Curtis could guess what was on Tony's mind and told him, “If you release the personal information of your clients to me, I can fix a membership for you.  You have easy access to the computer records and this should not be a problem.”

Tony knew very well that Curtis would misuse these clients’ personal information for illegal gains.  He did not wish to be part of any scam.  But he could not resist the temptation of the golf membership. It would be decades before he could secure one on his own merits and earnings.  Perhaps it would not be difficult to find another colleague who also had access to the data to be the scapegoat.  Dinner and entertainment by Curtis also flashed across his mind.  Tony began to waver.  Should he say ‘yes’ to Curtis?

Tom and Jerry were mechanical engineers of the Clark Gable Company Ltd (CG Co).  The two were the same batch and had been with the company for only a short time.  Recently, due to the re-organisation of the firm, some people would be laid off.   Mechanical engineering work would then be vested with a larger company, the Rock Hudson  Ltd.  The first ones to go would be those who came last and thus Tom and Jerry's jobs would be in jeopardy.

Tom tried to find a way out for the two of them.   They persuaded two friends, Sam and Tim who had similar training and background, to set up an engineering company called the Catch All Engineering Ltd (CAE).  This would serve as a fallback in case they were really sacked.

Shortly after CAE was set up, the bad news released.   Tom and Jerry were given notice to leave CG Co but, to their great surprise, Rock Hudson Ltd., which had taken over CG Co, offered to employ them to undertake their old duties.

Both of them were overjoyed.  But then they had another problem.  The two would have no more time to take care of matters related to CAE.

So one evening Tom and Jerry treated Sam and Tim to a sumptuous meal and told them that they could no longer share the business with them. Sam and Tim were outraged.  They reprimanded Tom and Jerry for making use of them in the first place and then leaving them in the lurch.  Trying to find a way out, Tim then made a proposal to Tom and Jerry.

Rock Hudson, as a major company, could provide many work opportunities.  The only thing that had to be done was to get CAE on their approved list of contractors.  Tom and Jerry could try to arrange that in whatever way possible.  After all, CAE provided quality service and it had to survive.

Tom and Jerry were in a quandary. They counted themselves most fortunate to be still in employment and with an even larger company. And they wished they could help their friends out.  Should they agree to add CAE to the approved list no matter what and no matter how?  It would do Rock Hudson no harm anyway.

What would happen if they refused?  Would they be indebted to Sam and Tim for the rest of their lives?  How should they handle that?

Eva was a clever and efficient staff member working on a fixed-term contract in a large firm.  She could easily complete her assignments before the deadlines; but she preferred not letting other colleagues know about that because she did not want extra workload given to her and making other colleagues look less capable.  Being a fixed-term contract staff member, she understood that she would leave the firm at the end of the contract.  Hoping to make her mark one day and to secure future income, she was thinking the possibility of developing her side-business during the office hours by using the firm’s resources while pretending working on certain projects in the office. 

Eva thought to herself: it was not her fault that she was more efficient and capable than other colleagues.  She was only a fixed-term contract staff member and would leave the firm one day.  She needed to prepare herself for the future.

Was that justified for Eva’s secret plan?  What about the interest of the firm?  What factors does Eva need to consider before taking her course of action?

Felix, a production manager of a large toy factory, had two assistants, Gigi and Gordon.  Gigi was the favourite because she was a young charming lady and also a cousin of the General Manager while Gordon was not because he was brash and sometimes outright insolent.  They were both responsible for handling the overtime claims for workers on the toy production.  The Finance Department had complained to Felix a few times about Gigi and raised queries over some overtime claims forwarded by Gigi.  There were widespread rumours that Gigi might have overstated the overtime hours and even forged claims by using ghost workers.  Yet, Felix could not bring himself to ask Gigi for explanations but went easy on her by telling her to be more ‘prudent’ when handling the overtime claims in the future.  On the other hand, the Finance Department contacted Felix again but this time was about Gordon.  They had questions about some discrepancies on the hours of the overtime claims forwarded by Gordon.  However, Felix treated Gordon more strictly and was much firmer on the occasion.

Was Felix being equally fair to his assistants when handling the queries from the Finance Department?  Would it upset the General Manager if Felix was not kind to Gigi at work, which in return affected Felix’s work prospect?  How would it affect his professional image in the eyes of other colleagues?

One day at dinner time, an inspector of a government department was chatting with a former colleague who owned a consultancy company.  During the meeting, the inspector mentioned that he had been in financial difficulties recently. The owner of the consultancy company took the chance to lend a helping hand to the inspector by offering him a loan of substantial amount.  At the same time, the owner of the consultancy company requested the inspector to copy to him from the database of the departmental computer and saved them into his personal USB.  Those records concerned the business organizations that had failed to comply with the regulations enforced by his department.  In return for the help from his former colleague, the inspector obtained over 100 records and sent them to the owner of the consultancy company.  The owner of the consultancy company used the records as a sales lead, approaching those business organisations on the list and touting his consultancy services to them. Some of the business organisations received sales calls from the consultancy company almost as soon as they had received warning notices from the government. They suspected corruption and reported the matter to the ICAC.

Tim was the director of a Hong Kong company and was stationed in its Mainland factory. In the process of awarding a freight contract to a cross–boundary transportation company for goods to be transported to Hong Kong, he claimed he was the factory owner. Tim also falsely claimed that he needed to inflate the transportation cost to offset certain monthly miscellaneous expenses, which were not chargeable to the company's account. He instructed the transportation company operator to inflate the transportation fees on the monthly statement by HK$20,000. He then submitted the statement to his company for issuing of payment to the transportation company via the personal bank account of the factory accountant.   Tim had subsequently pocketed HK$180,000 through the bank account of the accountant for nine months.

The transportation company operator later discovered that Tim was only a paid director and not the actual factory owner.

Daphne, a purchasing officer in a watch manufacturing company, was responsible for recommending spare parts suppliers.  One day, a supplier, Simon, invited her for a lunch and made a business suggestion.  If Daphne recommended her company continuing to use Simon’s company as a supplier, Simon would mark up the quotation price by 4% from the next purchase order and they could equally split the profit by having 2% each.

Daphne was scandalized when hearing the suggestion.  Although Simon’s suggested mark-up price was still by far the lowest among the lot, the quality of his products was not as good as the others and only just met the company’s required standard.  On a second thought, she needed an extra income at the moment because she had just made the down-payment for her new flat.  After all, her company would still get a good bargain price.

Would Daphne commit an offence if she accepted Simon’s suggestion?  What factors does she need to consider when making a decision?

Mr Chow started a joint venture with three of his friends by setting up a chemical engineering company in Hong Kong and a chemical manufacturing factory in Guangdong. The four of them were all directors of the company, each holding 25% of the company shares.

As Mr Chow had substantial experience in operating factories in Chinese Mainland and had developed an extensive business network in Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland especially with Mainland suppliers and government officials, he offered to manage the Mainland factory as the paid General Manager in charge of the business there.

Mr Chow often boasted that the success of the Mainland factory was due to his networking clout. At the same time, he kept grumbling that he had to cover the enormous entertainment expenses with his own money. As the General Manager of the Mainland factory, Mr Chow was entrusted with key procurement decisions. When one of his Hong Kong suppliers learned that Mr Chow had recently bought a property in Chinese Mainland, he presented Mr Chow with an expensive audio- visual set-up, hoping that this gift would secure a contract for the supply of chemical raw materials.

This seemingly thoughtful present soon brought its reward in the form of a first order from Mr Chow. To secure future business, the supplier also offered 5% of the transaction amount as a rebate to Mr Chow at his request. Subsequently, the bribe money was deposited into Mr Chow’s bank account in Hong Kong.

Mr. Chung had established a toy manufacturing enterprise in the Mainland in partnership with his friends. Holding 10% of the shares, he was mainly responsible for supervising the manufacturing process. Since Chung had the authority to purchase materials for the company, he hinted to a Mainland supplier that he expected a rebate equivalent to 5% of the transaction amount as a reward for placing purchase orders. When the incident was exposed, the ICAC found that none of the shareholders in the enterprise had any knowledge of Chung’s acceptance of advantages. Besides, the company did not establish any clear policies on such acceptance of advantage either for its shareholders or staff. It was revealed that Chung had accepted a total of $50,000 over a period of eight months. Chung was sentenced to imprisonment for committing a bribery offence.