The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
A spokesman for the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) said today (January 8) that the implementation arrangements for launching the Report Public Housing Abuse Award endorsed earlier will take effect on January 15, 2025.
The HA's Subsidised Housing Committee endorsed on December 31, 2024, to launch a Cherish Public Housing Resources Award Scheme, namely the Report Public Housing Abuse Award. The Arrangements for the Award are as follows –
1. Implementation of the Award: The Award will be launched on January 15, 2025. For tenancy abuse cases reported before the launching of the Award by informants with known identities, if the investigation is not yet completed and the reported cases are found to be substantiated based on the informants' information, leading to the issuance of a Notice-to-Quit (NTQ) to the households with tenancy abuse after the launching of the Award, the informant will be contacted to confirm whether they would join the Award.
2. Eligibility of Informants: Except for staff directly employed by the HA/Housing Department (HD) (note), any person aged 16 or above who provides genuine and concrete information that leads to the HD's successful issuance of an NTQ to households with tenancy abuse may join the Award. As a cash reward will be offered, participants must provide their real names on the reports and indicate their intention to join the Award. The reports will be preliminarily assessed, and the informants will be interviewed by dedicated personnel to verify the accuracy of the information provided. Participants, including those who make reports in non-prescribed formats, will be notified of the receipt of their report through an acknowledgement notice.
3. Channels for making reports: Persons interested in joining the Award may report tenancy abuse cases through various channels, including (i) report aerogrammes, (ii) online form on the HA/HD website, (iii) reporting hotlines, (iv) email to the HA/HD, or (v) informing the estate offices.
4. Reward: To encourage reporting of tenancy abuse cases, the HA will present a certificate of appreciation and offer a maximum cash reward of HK$3,000 to Award participants who provide information that leads to the HA's successful issuance of an NTQ to households with tenancy abuse.
5. Assessment Panel: To prevent misuse of the Award, the reporting cases for receiving rewards will be reviewed by an Assessment Panel. The Assessment Panel will also examine complicated/controversial cases (such as cases where more than one person claims that an NTQ was issued to a particular public rental housing (PRH) household due to their provided information). The Assessment Panel, chaired by a directorate officer, will make the final decision.
6. Publicity: Information about the Award will be widely disseminated via reporting aerogrammes, posters in estates, animated videos and rolling text broadcasts on the Housing Channel as well as the HA/HD website to the public and PRH residents, and various channels will be set up to facilitate and encourage participation in the Award and reporting of suspected cases.
7. Privacy: The identity of informants will be kept strictly confidential; in addition, the HA/HD will not disclose investigation details and results to informants.
The spokesman added that since the HA implemented new measures to enhance combating tenancy abuse, cases that are relatively easy to detect have been discovered. To identify remaining hidden cases, more investigative clues from the public are needed. To this end, the HA will launch the award scheme to encourage the public to report tenancy abuse cases, thereby safeguarding the rational use of PRH resources.
Note: This includes civil servants, term or contract staff employed directly by the HA/HD and body-shopped personnel employed through a consultant company to execute duties of the HA/HD.
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