Distrust Over China Bottled Water Sparks Probe Into HK Govt Deal

Couple Behind Firm That Won Contract To Supply Water To City's Govt Offices Arrested

- Magdalene Fung

HONG KONG - A HK$53 million (S$8.7 million) contract to supply drinking water from mainland China to government offices in Hong Kong is at the centre of the latest scandal to rock the Asian financial hub.

The government said late on Aug 20 that it had terminated all contracts associated with Xin Ding Xin Trade (XDX), after concluding that the firm could not fulfil the three-year deal to supply mainland-bottled water to Hong Kong's public offices.

The authorities have arrested the married couple behind the Hong Kong-registered firm on suspicion that they gave officials false information to win the water contract.

The police's preliminary probe also found the couple are linked to a separate fraud case in 2022, local media reported.

On Aug 21, the city's procurement chief Carlson Chan apologised for lapses on the government's part that caused it to overlook the fraudulent deal.

But the incident - still unfolding as investigations continue - has cast a spotlight on the integrity of the government's procurement system.

It has also brought to the fore a latent mistrust of mainland-origin food and drinks that still exists within some sectors of Hong Kong society, even as Hong Kongers have grown increasingly open to shopping and dining on the cheap in mainland China in recent years.

The latest scandal started in June when the government, for the first time, awarded its offices' drinking water-supply contracts to mainland suppliers.

XDX won the HK$52.9 million deal to supply water - which it said would be bottled on the mainland by the Guangzhou branch of Chinese manufacturer Robust Guangdong Drinking Water - to government offices on Hong Kong Island and the city's outlying islands.