An Electrical & Mechanical Services Department officer and a subcontractor have been jailed by the District Court for bribery.

Department Acting Assistant Air-conditioning Inspector Tso Moon-tong, 51, received a 36-month jail term, while ProSense Engineering Company operator Sham Chung-pak, 55, was jailed 21 months.

Deputy Judge Timothy Casewell said it was unacceptable for Tso, as a civil servant, to commit the misconduct offence. He also reprimanded Sham for tarnishing the construction sector.

Tso admitted to two counts of accepting an advantage, and was convicted of three offences after trial - misconduct in public office, soliciting an advantage and blackmail. Sham was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to offer advantages, and one of aiding and abetting Tso in committing the misconduct offence.

ProSense was a subcontractor of Winston Air-Conditioning & Engineering, which was awarded a department biennial contract worth $17 million for the maintenance of unattended air conditioning installations in Kowloon.

Between October 2003 and February 2004, Tso, aided and abetted by Sham, intentionally misconducted himself in respect of the contract. He showed improper partiality towards ProSense by exerting pressure on an assistant services manager of Winston to subcontract to ProSence maintenance works under the contract. Tso also made arrangements for ProSense to further subcontract the maintenance works to Chun Hing Engineering, in which Tso had an interest.

In December 2003, Tso intimidated the assistant services manager of Winston to subcontract the maintenance works to ProSense. On separate occasions between September 2003 and January 2004, Tso accepted two loans totalling $50,000, and solicited $100,000 from two other subcontractors. Sham conspired with his business partner to offer monthly payments of $20,000 to Tso, whilst having dealings with the Government.