Hong Kong went through ups and downs in 2022, having treaded through the fifth wave of the epidemic in the first half of the year and gradually returned to normalcy as the border between Mainland and Hong Kong fully reopened.

In 2022, the ICAC remained steadfast and continued to enforce the law rigorously. Apart from discharging its anti-corruption duties, the Commission also strived to prevent criminals from endangering national security through illegal acts facilitated by corrupt means. As ever, the ICAC is committed to maintaining Hong Kong as a corruption-free and competitive economy, as well as one of the cleanest places in the world.

General Corruption Scene

The corruption situation in Hong Kong continues to be well under control. In 2022, a total of 1,835 corruption complaints (excluding election complaints) were received by the ICAC, representing a drop of 429 complaints (or 19%), while pursuable complaints also went down by 300 (17%) to 1,438 when compared to 2021. There was an across-the-board decline in the number of corruption complaints concerning the government sector, public bodies and private sector, in particular in the latter. The ICAC believed the decrease was attributable to dwindling economic activities caused by the fifth wave of the pandemic in early 2022, which was similar to the situation at the onset of the pandemic outbreak in 2020.

In 2022, 204 persons were prosecuted in 104 cases for non-election offences, compared to 190 persons in 106 cases recorded in 2021. The person-based and case-based conviction rates were 80% and 82% respectively.

Government Sector and Public Bodies

The civil service and public bodies in Hong Kong remain generally clean and honest. In 2022, corruption complaints involving government bureaux/departments decreased from 645 to 533 (or 17%), while pursuable complaints also dropped from 426 to 372 (or 13%) when compared to 2021. Corruption complaints concerning public bodies decreased from 137 to 121 (or 12%), and pursuable complaints also dropped from 98 to 77 (or 21%). The ICAC will continue to enhance integrity training for principal officials, bureaux/departments to entrench the probity culture of the public sector and to strengthen the public’s confidence in the government.

The ICAC continues to address and prevent corruption risks in public administration with special emphasis on issues of public concern, those which are closely related to people’s livelihood or public safety, as well as initiatives and projects involving substantial public money. In 2022, the ICAC provided corruption prevention advice to over 50 government bureaux/departments and about 90 public bodies through 63 assignment studies and 588 consultation services.

Private Sector

In 2022, corruption complaints concerning the private sector declined by 1,482 to 1,181 (or 20%), with a corresponding 19% drop in pursuable complaints from 1,214 to 989 when compared to 2021. The three sectors which attracted most complaints were Building Management, Construction Industry, and Finance and Insurance. The ICAC has always attached great importance to corruption complaints relating to people’s livelihood. Despite a drop in the number of complaints concerning the aforementioned sectors, considerable resources were devoted to tackle those cases through law enforcement, early intervention and preventive education.

Construction Industry

As construction projects may involve huge amounts of money, sophisticated procedures and significant public interest, they present high relatively greater corruption risks. The ICAC has always taken a tough stance on these cases. A series of such enforcement actions were taken since the first half of 2021 to tackle cases of bribery over job referrals. From 2021 to 2022, a total of 20 persons were prosecuted, 12 of whom were convicted. Moreover, an operation was conducted on August 17, 2022 against bribery in relation to the Three-runway System Project (the Project) of the Hong Kong International Airport, successfully cracking down a corruption syndicate. A former senior executive of the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) and a proprietor of a sub-contractor were prosecuted for accepting and offering bribes. As a number of mega infrastructure projects will soon commence, the ICAC believed the robust law enforcement would serve as a strong deterrent to the industry. The Commission had also provided corruption prevention training for all employees of AA and over 60% of the Project’s main contractors or consulting companies’ management and professional staff, covering anti-bribery laws, integrity management and procurement. The ICAC also reviewed various areas of work for the AA, including subcontracting procedures as well as contract fee payment procedures over works contracts, and provided corresponding corruption prevention advice. The AA has agreed to partner with the ICAC to implement the relevant recommendations.

In view of various development plans initiated by the government and public bodies in the coming years, the ICAC will organise the “Public Works Integrity Leadership Certificate Course” for relevant government departments, public bodies and consulting companies this year to enhance their corruption prevention capabilities. Senior staff of the professional grades of the AA will be offered the first certificate course with more in-depth contents than previous training seminars.

The ICAC has also adopted a “concurrent preventive approach” to offer corruption prevention advice to government works departments throughout planning and implementation stages to safeguard the integrity of construction projects. In addition, the Commission had also assisted the Approved Contractors for Public Works as well as the Approved Suppliers of Materials and Specialist Contractors for Public Works to implement the Integrity Management System proposed by the ICAC and mandated by the Development Bureau since 2021. Meanwhile, more than 6,700 practitioners had attended over 50 sessions of integrity management training organised in 2022.

To enhance the corruption prevention capability in government departments and public bodies, the ICAC will collaborate with stakeholders such as the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer to promote the use of information technology and promulgate digitalisation as a key corruption prevention strategy. To further uphold and enhance professionalism and integrity of the construction industry, the “Integrity Charter” jointly launched by the ICAC, Development Bureau and the Construction Industry Council was promulgated to all construction companies. As at the end of 2022, the Commission had provided integrity training for about 6,000 practitioners in the construction industry. The scheme was upgraded to “Construction Industry Integrity Charter 2.0” and extended to cover consulting firms in December 2022.

Building Management

Building Management topped the list of private sector areas attracting the most corruption complaints, although the number had seen a drop. The ICAC will continue to adopt a two-pronged strategy, combining investigation and enforcement action against those who broke the law, as well as early intervention to alert flat owners on potential corruption risks in a timely manner. In early January this year, the ICAC successfully neutralised a sophisticated corruption syndicate in relation to building maintenance in an operation codenamed “Fire Net”. The investigation concerned 10 building maintenance projects and involved contract sums totalling over $500 million, while the bribes involved in some projects amounted to over $1 million.

Building management is closely related to the livelihood of members of the public and the enforcement action demonstrated the ICAC’s determination to safeguard their interest. The Commission will continue to stay vigilant against corruption risks in various building maintenance subsidy schemes, and collaborate with the Urban Renewal Authority and relevant government departments to reduce corruption in maintenance projects through measures such as corruption prevention reviews, preventive guides as well as the Smart Tender service scheme and district seminars. To enhance corruption prevention awareness and professional standard of the property management industry, the ICAC has joined hands with the Property Management Services Authority to promote the “Code of Conduct on Prevention of Corruption” and the “Property Management Corruption Prevention Red Flags”.

Finance and Insurance

The ICAC continues to strengthen cooperation with regulatory bodies in maintaining a clean financial market. At this juncture as Hong Kong returns to the international financial arena after the pandemic, the Commission will strive to foster the city’s unique status and advantages as a global financial centre, and enhance the confidence of local and overseas investors in Hong Kong’s financial system.

The ICAC signed a Memoranda of Understanding with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Financial Reporting Council in respectively in 2019 and 2021 to deepen mutual enforcement cooperation. In November 2022, the Commission and SFC mounted a joint operation against a syndicate which allegedly operated ramp-and-dump schemes through a complex cross-shareholding network involving Hong Kong-listed companies. The syndicate was suspected to have offered bribes to operators and staff members of securities firms for providing assistance in shares placing.

To assist banks in strengthening their corruption prevention capabilities and to enhance professional ethics of practitioners, during the year, the ICAC published a Corruption Prevention Guide for Banks which covered common corruption loopholes in their core operations with recommended control measures. Meanwhile, the ICAC continues to provide insurance companies with tailored advisory services and training, and disseminate corruption prevention advice in collaboration with the Insurance Authority and trade associations. In addition, the “Integrity for Success” Ethics Promotion Campaign was launched for the industry.

An ‘All-embracing’ strategy for clean elections

Under the improved electoral system, the 2021 Election Committee Subsector Ordinary Elections, the 2021 Legislative Council General Election, the 2022 Chief Executive Election and 2023 Rural Representative Election were held smoothly. In 2022, the ICAC received 20, 96, five and 14 complaints respectively regarding the four elections, of which 20, 96, five and 12 were pursuable.

In 2022, 11 persons were prosecuted for election offences and 12 persons convicted for breaches of election offences. Twenty-two persons were given warnings for minor breaches of electoral offences which mainly related to election expenses.

In order to curb any acts that may constitute offences of manipulating and sabotaging an election, a new provision, Section 27A of the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance, was introduced in 2021 against “inciting not to vote, or to cast invalid votes, by activity in public during an election period”. As of today, nine persons were charged for breaching the offence upon investigation by the ICAC and all of them were convicted. One person was formally cautioned. The above enforcement results demonstrated the ICAC’s commitment and dedicated efforts in safeguarding clean elections. Meanwhile, the Commission also adopted a preventive and intervention strategy. ICAC officers were deployed at polling stations on polling days for handling public enquiries and complaints on the spot and monitoring the vote-counting process to ensure the elections were conducted in a fair, open and clean manner.

Building a clean society together

The ICAC has always attached great importance to community education to promote the values of rule of law, law-abidingness and honesty. The ICAC Annual Survey 2022 showed that the community was highly intolerant to corruption. On a scale of 0-10, of which 0 representing total rejection and 10 total tolerance of corruption, a mean score of 0.5 was registered, reflecting that integrity was entrenched in the society. In addition, a majority (98.9 per cent) of over 1,700 respondents said they had not encountered corruption personally in the past 12 month. The findings were similar to those in the past 10 years, confirming the stable probity situation and the hard-earned achievement of Hong Kong in the fight against corruption.

“When young people thrive, Hong Kong thrives”. The ICAC leverages its community networks and organizes activities catered for teenagers to nurture the quality of integrity in the young generations and enhance their understanding of the country’s development. Relevant initiatives included the “i Junior Programme for Primary Schools”, iTeen Leadership Programme for secondary students and the “iPLUS” Youth Development Project – training programme for ICAC Ambassadors from tertiary institutions. To forge closer communications with tertiary students, the Commission joined hands with The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong – the three universities which offer the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL) – to arrange for 400 PCLL students to visit the ICAC headquarters in October and November last year. The initiative was designed to help deepen their understanding of Hong Kong’s anti-corruption regime as well as its law enforcement work. Meanwhile, the Commission also collaborated with the Legal Education Fund and The Chinese University of Hong Kong in arranging visits and exchanges for around 150 tertiary students.

Mainland and International Cooperation

In view of the pandemic, international liaisons and exchanges in recent years were maintained through online platforms and virtual bilateral meetings. Last year, eight online capacity building training programmes were organized by the ICAC, reaching about 150 overseas graft-fighters to share Hong Kong’s anti-corruption experience.

With the relaxation of in-bound quarantine restrictions, the Commissioner paid duty visits to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in September and December last year respectively, fostering closer partnerships and resuming collaborations and exchanges with ICAC’s counterparts in the Southeast Asia region. Upon the requests from many anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) for ICAC to resume its anti-corruption training courses, the Commission hosted the “Financial Investigation Specialist Training” programme in Hong Kong in early December 2022. The course was attended by officers of ACAs from seven Southeast Asian countries. In addition, a face-to-face “Corruption Prevention and Public Education” training course was also organized in Hong Kong for graft-fighters from Mongolia in January and March this year.

The ICAC continues to maintain close liaisons with anti-corruption counterparts in the Mainland and Macao during the pandemic. Following the online meeting between the ICAC Commissioner and the Commissioner of the Commission Against Corruption of Macao in November 2022, the two anti-graft chiefs met in Hong Kong in late February this year to exchange views on the latest anti-corruption initiatives in both places. As cross-border travel has resumed, the ICAC will step up exchanges with counterparts in the Mainland and Macao to tie in with the implementation of national development and anti-graft policies.

Since the then ICAC Commissioner assumed presidency of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) in January 2022, the ICAC is dedicated to promoting the implementation of the Regional Coordination Mechanism. The IAACA currently has 155 members. The handover work and related procedures of the IAACA presidency commenced as soon as ICAC Commissioner Danny Woo Ying-ming assumed office in July 2022. The Commissioner has been keeping in touch with members of the Association and is planning to take over the IAACA presidency in September this year.

Looking Ahead

International Anti-corruption Academy, Hong Kong

Over the years, the ICAC has become the go-to organization for anti-corruption training courses. Numerous training were hosted for overseas anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) and local law enforcement agencies to enhance their capacities in fighting corruption. The courses always received overwhelming response and were highly praised by participants. To further promote Hong Kong’s probity culture and anti-corruption experience, the ICAC is consolidating existing resources and facilities to set up an International Anti-corruption Academy, Hong Kong (the Academy) to provide systematic and sustainable anti-corruption training courses for graft fighters from overseas ACAs and local law enforcement agencies. Specialised training will also be offered to local public and private sectors in order to widely promote and deepen the probity culture. The Academy will also serve as a platform for overseas counterparts to learn about the determination and achievements of the country and Hong Kong in graft-fighting work. The ICAC also plans to leverage the Academy to enhance surveys on Hong Kong’s integrity level through international platforms, so that Hong Kong’s probity situation would be truly reflected and the city’s good story be told to the international community. Last but not the least, the ICAC will actively explore to integrate training provided by the Academy into accredited programmes.

ICAC 50th Anniversary

The year 2024 will mark the golden jubilee of the ICAC’s establishment. Through a host of activities, including an international symposium, Open Day, TV drama series, a commemorative publication and public engagement activities, the ICAC will showcase to the local and international communities its strong determination in eradicating corruption and the hard-earned achievements of Hong Kong in its anti-graft journey.

Conclusion

With the full reopening of borders, Hong Kong’s economic development and people’s livelihood are returning to normalcy. ICAC officers will remain steadfast and unwavering. Through a three-pronged approach of law enforcement, corruption prevention and education, they will continue to safeguard Hong Kong’s probity environment.