Counterfeit bricks in MTR’s Tung Chung East station project, improperly sourced bottled water for government departments, substandard trainers for lifeguards – recent scandals in Hong Kong have aroused controversies rooted in the government’s public procurement process.Few Hongkongers have the vaguest idea of the scale of government procurement, even though it is everywhere around us. The Government Transparency Institute, which tries to monitor government procurement worldwide, estimates it...