Company who won government tender penalised for leaking confidential data to private developer

Consultancy firm Arup barred from making bids for three months after disclosing population and employment figures to developer

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The site of the government’s proposed public housing project on a 3.8-hectare brownfield site in Wang Chau, Yuen Long. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 10:11pm, 13 Nov 2016Updated: 9:48am, 14 Nov 2016

A government-commissioned consultancy has been penalised for breaching contract and leaking confidential internal data to a private developer involved in a Wang Chau housing development.

Engineering giant Arup will be temporarily barred from bidding on government projects for three months, the Development Bureau confirmed yesterday.

“The public works consultancy contract makes clear provisions regulating a consultant’s known or potential conflicts of interest,” a bureau spokesman said.

“Without written approval from the relevant government departments, a consultancy shall not engage in, or make any contact with a third party that would relate to or affect [the contract].”

The Civil Engineering and Development Department commissioned Arup to carry out an infrastructure design study in Wang Chau, Yuen Long, in March this year as part of the government’s public housing project.

Arup was later accused of disclosing confidential data in a separate application to the Town Planning Board on behalf of developer New World Development to build a private residential development in Wing Ning Tsuen, next to the government’s Wang Chau project.