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Nov. 2014
Issue No.18

 

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Holistic strategy to build a clean city

Hong Kong has come a long way from a place plagued by corruption to one acclaimed as one of the cleanest places to live and do business. Among various success factors is a holistic strategy, combining investigation, prevention and education, adopted by the ICAC to fight graft.

How does this work?

Within the ICAC, the Operations Department (OPS) is the investigation arm. It sets a strong deterrent to potential criminals through effective enforcement, making corruption a high-risk crime. But deterrent alone is not enough. To provide a total solution to the problem, it is essential to promote general awareness and intolerance through prevention and education.


CPD officer (right) examines site supervision procedures

Take the construction industry as an example. Following an investigation by OPS into corrupt practices involving government officers condoning substandard work of contractors, the Corruption Prevention Department (CPD) will undertake a study to identify corruption loopholes in the procedures of supervision and recommend measures to plug those loopholes.

For private construction companies, the Advisory Services Group (ASG) of CPD stands ready to provide free and confidential advisory services on corruption prevention upon their requests. ASG has also produced a training package for industry practitioners and stakeholders to help raise their awareness against possible corruption risks and recommend corresponding preventive measures.

ICAC's anti-corruption talk for university students.

Last but not least, officers of the Community Relations Department (CRD) will reach out to practitioners and stakeholders in the construction sector with preventive education. The department makes use of mass media, such as TV dramas and advertisements, as well as face-to-face interaction like visits, talks and seminars to disseminate ICAC messages.

Advancement in technology has opened up new channels for CRD to convey anti-corruption messages to the public, in particular the younger generation. Members of the public can easily assess the latest ICAC news and services from our smartphone application, as well as social media platforms such as Facebook, Weibo (microblog) and YouTube.

Shift of public attitude

In the past four decades, the ICAC had successfully brought about a major shift of public attitude towards corruption from meek tolerance to outright rejection. Our opinion surveys in recent years showed that about 80% of the respondents said they were willing to report corruption, while an average of 97% considered the ICAC deserved their support.

We would not have achieved this without our holistic strategy of investigation, prevention and education which has also become a model of reference for anti-graft agencies in many other jurisdictions.

Joining hands with the public to fight graft

 

Four jailed for bribery over waterworks projects

Three senior executives of two construction companies and a director of an engineering company were sent to jail for offering and accepting huge bribes respectively in relation to waterworks projects.

The two construction companies were awarded three waterworks projects by the Water Supplies Department. After securing the project, the construction companies appointed the engineering company as the authorised supplier of pipeline materials.

To remain favourably disposed towards the engineering company, a commercial manager, a project manager and a planning engineer of the construction companies accepted over $150,000 in bribes from its director.

The bribe payments were calculated at the rate of about 1.5% of the total amount of purchase orders issued to the engineering company.

Subsequently, the four were laid with eight bribery charges. After being convicted of the charges, the three senior executives of the construction companies were sentenced to jail terms ranging from four to 16 months, while the director of the engineering company was jailed for 18 months.

The judge remarked that he had to mete out custodial sentences to the defendants taking into account precedents.

 


 

Graft prevention package for construction industry

The ICAC will launch a capacity building package to enhance the integrity standard and corruption prevention awareness among practitioners and stakeholders in the construction industry.

“In the past years, we saw the rapid growth of the industry in Hong Kong due to the large number of ongoing and planned major infrastructure and public housing projects,” said Acting Assistant Director of Corruption Prevention Mrs Jennie Au Yeung Wong Mei-fong.

“The substantial capital outlays and the complex construction process involved in various projects may make industry practitioners and stakeholders vulnerable to corruption and malpractices,” Mrs Au Yeung said.

 

Acting Assistant Director of Corruption Prevention Mrs Jennie Au Yeung

 

Capacity building package on corruption prevention for construction industry

Prevention is better than cure. To help the industry guard against corruption risks, the ICAC’s Corruption Prevention Department (CPD) has produced the capacity building package with support of the Construction Industry Council, the Development Bureau and the Hong Kong Housing Authority.

The package features three videos and lessons learned sessions to highlight the common corruption risks in construction covering contract letting, site supervision and contract administration and recommend corresponding preventive measures. In addition, it contains a set of training slides and a booklet for easy reference of both trainers and trainees.

The CPD will launch the package at a conference on November 25 this year. After the conference, the package will be distributed to industry stakeholders and posted on the ICAC website (www.icac.org.hk).

For further information, please contact the Advisory Services Group of CPD, which provides free, confidential and tailor-made corruption prevention services to private companies upon request:

 

Advisory Services Group
Tel: (852) 2526 6363
Email: cpas@cpd.icac.org.hk