HKCTC Seminar on Professional Integrity in Testing and Certification

The Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC), Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS), HKTIC and ICAC co-organized a seminar entitled “Professional Integrity in Testing and Certification” on 13th July 2015. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organizations. The seminar aimed to bring together experts from ICAC, the testing and certification (T&C) industry, professional bodies as well as government departments to talk in details from different perspectives about the management and practice of professional integrity in the T&C Industry.

In the beginning, Mr. Kesson Lee (Secretary-General, HKCTC) gave a welcome remark. He said “Professional Integrity is the cornerstone of the Testing and Certification Industry”. Integrity is not only lip service, but also performs it systematically such as SOP, Code of Conduct, etc.

Then all guest speakers took a group photo.
(Left: Mr. Raymond Wong (SGS), Mr. WW Wong (HKAS), Ir. Joe BM Leung (Housing Dept.), Mr. Kesson Lee (HKCTC), Mr. Lawrence Chung (ICAC), Dr. Christopher MK Leung (VTC) and Mr. KL Tsang (HKPC))

The first speaker was Mr. Lawrence Chung (Deputy Executive Director of Hong Kong Business Ethics Development Centre, Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)) and his topic entitled “Professional Integrity for Testing and Certification Industry – A Perspective from the ICAC”. In the beginning, Mr. Chung told us a scenario about inspector of a surveyor who performed inspection outside Hong Kong. The supplier treated to sumptuous lunch and then spent a short inspection in factory. After that he was invited to night club and offered a luxurious watch to turn a blind eye to poor quality products. This scenario showed step by step temptation for corruption.

Then Mr. Chung showed the diagram to explain Professional Integrity was the highest requirement and Law was the minimum requirement. If we kept Professional Integrity all the time, we could avoid falling into criminal. Professional Integrity content included “Alert – Common Integrity Risks”, “Aware – Anti-corruption Law” and “Act – Ethical Decision Making”.

Alert – Common Integrity Risks in T&C Industry involved:
- Fake test reports / results (Case: Forging Certificates jailed for 3 months to 2 years)
- Tamper with test samples (e.g. Most pass sample /必勝辨)
- Lax inspection / audit (Case: Jailed for 33 months to 2 years)
- Expedite testing / inspection / certification processes
- Handle confidential information
- Entertainment
- Conflict of interest
- Cross-boundary operations
Above actions breach of trust of the public and employer!

Aware – Anti-corruption Law (Prevention of Bribery Ordinance – PBO) involved:
- Ensure fair-play
- Protect interest of stakeholders
- Prevent breach of trust between agent and principal
- Govern both the private and public sectors
- Both the offeror and acceptor of a bribe are guilty
Summary of PBO is shown as following diagram.

Mr. Lawrence Chung explained “Advantages” and he told us it is no limit about amount of money (many people say HKD500!), even though only two dollars would be charged. Advantages included “Gift, load, fee, reward or commission”, “Employment or contract”, “Payment, release or discharge of loan or liability”, “Service or favour (except entertainment)” and “Exercise of any right or power”.

Act – Ethical Decision Making used “PLUS” Tests which stand for Professional Ethics, Legal Requirement, Uncompromising self-values and Sunshine test.

At the end, Mr. Lawrence Chung introduced “Corporate Ethics Compass” as the corruption prevention plan which included “Leadership”, “Training”, “Control Systems” and “Code of Conduct”.

It is pity that I attended another seminar in CityU and missing the following topics. We could find the presentation file in HKCTC website later.

Ir Joe BM Leung (Senior Civil Engineer / Materials Testing Management, Housing Department) and his topic was “Managing Material Testing in Public Housing Construction Projects for Integrity”.

Mr. WW Wong (Executive Administrator, HKAS) and his topic named “HKAS Requirements for Professional Integrity of Accredited Organisation”.

Dr. Leung Man-kit Christopher (Academic Director, Applied Science Discipline, Vocational Training Council) and his topic entitled “Ethical Management Training”.

Mr. Kam-lam Tsang (General Manager, Environmental Management Division, HKPC) and his presentation was “How Personnel Certification Can Help to Improve the Confidence in the T&C Industry”.

Mr. Raymond Wong (Director of Corporate PR and Business Development, SGS Hong Kong Ltd.) and his presentation named “Integrity Management of a Conformity Assessment Body”.

Reference:
HKCTC - http://www.hkctc.gov.hk/en/home.html
HKCTC Seminar presentation file - http://www.hkctc.gov.hk/en/work_seminars.html#b50
HKAS - http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/quality/hkas/about.htm
HKTIC - http://www.hktic.org/
ICAC - http://www.icac.org.hk/en/home/index.html
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/

Previous ICAC involved T&C Seminars:
20101025: Seminar on Support to Testing and Certification Industry - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2010/10/seminar-on-support-to-testing-and.html
20111103: Ethical Management Seminar for Testing and Certification Industry - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/11/ethical-management-seminar-for-testing.html
20131008: HKCTC Seminar on Integrity and Professional Development in Testing & Certification Industry - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/10/hkctc-seminar-on-integrity-and.html
20140114: ICAC Training Workshop for HKAS Accredited Organizations - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/01/icac-training-workshop-for-hkas.html