By Poyi (Natalie) Leung
A former senior official from Macao Sports Development Board (IDM) was arrested yesterday for allegedly abusing his power and hiring an unqualified masseuse to provide therapies during 2002 and 2003.
The official no longer works at the development board before yesterday’s arrest.
According to the Commission Against Corruption’s statement released yesterday by the Government Information Bureau, the suspect also allegedly let the masseuse make use of the government facilities to provide relevant services after her resignation.
The masseuse, with no qualified education or certificates, was recruited by an improper means to provide therapies for people who suffered from sports injuries between 2002 and 2003 when the suspect was in-charge of the sports development board.
The suspect was sent to the Public Prosecutions Office yesterday and will be charged with power abuse.
Acting president of Macao Sports Development Board, Vong Iao Lek, refused to give any response to questions regarding the matter when attending a press conference at the main office.
This, Vong said, was because he had not yet received any information regarding the arrest.
“The information was only released to the media but not to me, so I’ve no idea what is actually going on and thus can’t answer any of the questions,” he said.
He added that, however, the sports development board was a government department in which all the works would be done strictly adhering to the law.
Meanwhile, the press conference yesterday officially announced the launch of a survey initiated by Macao Sports Development Board as part of its research to find out the current sport development level and to propose future development strategies.
Some 40,000 questionnaires, targetted at local residents aged 16 or above, were outlined by Beijing Sports University and distributed and collected by University of Macau (UMAC).
A 150-researcher team was organised by UMAC who is now collecting data from local organisations and education institutes.
Thirty-one elderly and service centres, six high schools, four higher education institutes, nine government organisations and 15 private organisations and associations were randomly selected to participate into the survey.
The next phase of the research will see researchers doing telephone interviews, street and household survey which will all be completed in the first half of next year.
Acting president Vong Iao Lek said Macau’s sports industry had drawn both local and international attention following the 2005 East Asian Games, 2006 Lusofonia Games and this year’s Asian Indoor Games which were all held in the SAR.
“Macau’s international status and image has been lifted with the government investing in the sports industry,” Mr Vong added.
He said the research was carried out in a bid to better organise the future of local sports development and to enhance the sports standard in the region as a whole.
Since the Macau SAR was established in 1999, Mr Vong said the government had put in a lot of resources to boost sports development which helped improve its competitiveness, public involvement and general facilities.
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