Hong Kong’s anti-graft watchdog and police have arrested 42 people in a joint operation to crack down on triad infiltration of building maintenance projects. A building covered with scaffold nets in Kennedy Town on December 8, 2025. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement on Monday that it arrested 10 men on suspicion of using triad connections to secure a HK$160 million building maintenance contract.
The suspects, aged between 28 and 61, included the proprietor and a registered inspector of a project consultancy firm, several middlemen with triad backgrounds, the proprietors of two project contractors, and a director of a property management company, the ICAC said. Following the ICAC’s operation, police made 32 arrests at sites in the New Territories believed to be controlled by triads involved in the building maintenance syndicate. The 32 individuals, 14 men and 18 women aged between 30 and 75, were arrested for offences including “operating gambling establishments” and “gambling in any place not being a gambling establishment.”
The joint operation, codenamed Scabbard, was conducted on Thursday and Friday, according to the statement.
The ICAC said it “received corruption complaints from the public since mid-2025, alleging that a project consultancy firm had assisted construction contractors to secure building maintenance contracts in various residential estates through bribery.”
Investigations found that the consultancy firm had allegedly secured contracts to oversee building maintenance projects for 0.5 per cent of the HK$160 million contract price, which the ICAC said was an “unreasonably low fee.”
The firm also tasked triad middlemen with manipulating the tendering process for a HK$160 million maintenance project at a housing estate in the New Territories “through corrupt means” to secure a lucrative contract.
Manipulated tenders
The ICAC said its officers also raided 22 locations, including the offices of the consultancy firm and the contractor, as well as the suspects’ residences. They seized evidence, including documents relating to the building maintenance projects, as well as banking and accounting records.
Initial findings suggest that the companies may have fabricated accounting records to cover up dubious income and expenses. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. The consultancy firm and a director of a property management company at a Kowloon residential building are also suspected of accepting bribes from a contractor for lobbying flat owners to award a fire safety project to that contractor at HK$1.4 million, approximately twice the market price.
The same consultancy firm previously oversaw a HK$20 million renovation project at a residential building on Hong Kong Island in 2022. Investigations found that a registered inspector at the firm signed reports without actually conducting any inspections.
The arrests come amid heightened awareness of bid-rigging and other illicit practices in the industry in the wake of the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court. The government-subsidised housing estate in Tai Po was undergoing large-scale maintenance work under a mandatory government order when the blaze broke out in November.
The ICAC said last week that it had laid corruption charges against five people, aged 42 to 70, over renovation projects totalling HK$90 million at three housing estates.
Meanwhile, the Competition Commission said last week that it launched legal proceedings against a “building maintenance cartel” that allegedly secured contracts at multiple housing estates, including Wang Fuk Court, worth nearly HK$700 million through bid-rigging and other illicit practices.