Record high non-anonymous reports reflects public trust in ICAC
2006-7-5
The public has continued to demonstrate exceptional trust in the ICAC as the proportion of non-anonymous corruption reports hit a record high of 73% last year, the 2005 ICAC Annual Report has revealed.
Presenting the Report at the Legislative Council today (Wednesday), Legislative Councillor and member of the Advisory Committee on Corruption, Mr Sin Chung-kai noted that while the community expected the ICAC to continuously enhance its effectiveness and accountability, they also demonstrated strong confidence in the Commission.
Despite a slight decrease of two per cent in the total number of corruption reports received, pursuable reports containing sufficient information to start an investigation increased by three per cent.
Of the 3,685 corruption reports received in 2005, 80 per cent or 2,946 were pursuable –'96 the highest percentage ever recorded.
Mr Sin believed that corruption continued to be put under a tight rein as a result of ICAC's rigorous efforts in law enforcement, corruption prevention and community education.
Last year, 348 persons were prosecuted for corruption and related offences while another eight were charged for election-related offences. The case-based conviction rate stood at a high level of 81 per cent.
In the Annual Report, ICAC Commissioner, Raymond Wong Hung-chiu, remarked that advances in technology and the globalisation of trade made the battle against corruption increasingly complex and intricate.
The growing complexity of the cases handled by the ICAC was reflected in the immense workload of two specialist investigation groups.
In 2005, the ICAC's Computer Forensics and Research and Development Section carried out 540 computer data analyses to help trace corrupt activities. The Financial Investigation Section conducted 1,160 financial investigations, involving $6.25 billion in total.
Mr Wong stressed that the ICAC would continue to enhance its investigative capability and step up professional training to meet new challenges.
In 2005, with the assistance of a law enforcement professional training consultant, the ICAC had embarked on a major review of training programmes to ensure that the agency would remain on top of the latest trends and best practices in law enforcement.
The Commission also enlisted the help of an overseas specialist consultant to enhance its training courses for frontline investigators in probing graft-related financial fraud cases.
Likewise, a team of overseas witness protection experts had been invited to provide training and advice to ICAC's Arms Issued Officers.
The Commission also embarked on a strategic information technology blueprint to be implemented in stages to enhance information-sharing capacity, support for front-line investigators, communications in field operations and computer forensics competence, M r Wong added.
On the prevention and education fronts, the ICAC proactively offered advice to government bureaux and departments in relation to outsourcing and Public-Private-Partnership initiatives to minimise corruption opportunities in procedures and systems.
As far as the business sector was concerned, Mr Wong said growing cross-boundary businesses had brought challenges to investors due to legal, economic and cultural differences.
Apart from promoting a corruption prevention kit tailor-made for cross-boundary business organisations, the ICAC was invited to conduct two seminars in Shenzhen last year for senior executives employed by Hong Kong companies to manage cross-boundary opera tions.
Presenting the Report at the Legislative Council today (Wednesday), Legislative Councillor and member of the Advisory Committee on Corruption, Mr Sin Chung-kai noted that while the community expected the ICAC to continuously enhance its effectiveness and accountability, they also demonstrated strong confidence in the Commission.
Despite a slight decrease of two per cent in the total number of corruption reports received, pursuable reports containing sufficient information to start an investigation increased by three per cent.
Of the 3,685 corruption reports received in 2005, 80 per cent or 2,946 were pursuable –'96 the highest percentage ever recorded.
Mr Sin believed that corruption continued to be put under a tight rein as a result of ICAC's rigorous efforts in law enforcement, corruption prevention and community education.
Last year, 348 persons were prosecuted for corruption and related offences while another eight were charged for election-related offences. The case-based conviction rate stood at a high level of 81 per cent.
In the Annual Report, ICAC Commissioner, Raymond Wong Hung-chiu, remarked that advances in technology and the globalisation of trade made the battle against corruption increasingly complex and intricate.
The growing complexity of the cases handled by the ICAC was reflected in the immense workload of two specialist investigation groups.
In 2005, the ICAC's Computer Forensics and Research and Development Section carried out 540 computer data analyses to help trace corrupt activities. The Financial Investigation Section conducted 1,160 financial investigations, involving $6.25 billion in total.
Mr Wong stressed that the ICAC would continue to enhance its investigative capability and step up professional training to meet new challenges.
In 2005, with the assistance of a law enforcement professional training consultant, the ICAC had embarked on a major review of training programmes to ensure that the agency would remain on top of the latest trends and best practices in law enforcement.
The Commission also enlisted the help of an overseas specialist consultant to enhance its training courses for frontline investigators in probing graft-related financial fraud cases.
Likewise, a team of overseas witness protection experts had been invited to provide training and advice to ICAC's Arms Issued Officers.
The Commission also embarked on a strategic information technology blueprint to be implemented in stages to enhance information-sharing capacity, support for front-line investigators, communications in field operations and computer forensics competence, M r Wong added.
On the prevention and education fronts, the ICAC proactively offered advice to government bureaux and departments in relation to outsourcing and Public-Private-Partnership initiatives to minimise corruption opportunities in procedures and systems.
As far as the business sector was concerned, Mr Wong said growing cross-boundary businesses had brought challenges to investors due to legal, economic and cultural differences.
Apart from promoting a corruption prevention kit tailor-made for cross-boundary business organisations, the ICAC was invited to conduct two seminars in Shenzhen last year for senior executives employed by Hong Kong companies to manage cross-boundary opera tions.