The District Court has jailed three senior executives of two companies for up to five years for bribery and false accounting relating to the supply of electrical materials to Housing Authority projects.

They are Mpower Engineering director Wong Hung-ki, 57, ABB Industrial & Building Systems president Yu Chi-wai, 49, and ABB financial controller Ann Wong, 41.

The defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to offer an advantage to public servants and conspiracy to falsify accounts.

Since August 1998, Wong, Yu, an ABB sales manager and another supplier had regular meetings. They formed a cartel and discussed the order of priority for Mpower, ABB and another cartel member to secure contracts for the supply of an electrical material to those nominated sub-contractors in the authority's forthcoming building projects. Two other suppliers subsequently joined the cartel in January 1999 and secured a greater profit margin.

Later Wong told Yu and the ABB sales manager certain Housing Department officers offered help in pressuring some nominated sub-contractors to engage the cartel members to supply the material.

From May to July 1999 Wong and Yu conspired with other people to offer a $700,000 bribe to the officers. The money was equally contributed by Mpower, ABB and other companies in the cartel.

To cover up ABB's share, equivalent to $233,350, Wong, Yu and Ann Wong conspired with the ABB sales manager to issue a bogus purchase order to Mpower for the provision of technicians and equipment for modification of capacitor banks.

From May to August 1999, Wong and Yu conspired with other people to offer $1.2 million in bribes to those officers for the same purpose. They and Ann Wong again conspired with the ABB sales manager to issue two bogus purchase orders of $200,000 each.