Preventive education – the first line of defence against corruption

A career devoted to probity education - candid sharing by the ICAC's Director of Community Relations

As usual, the ICAC booth at the Hong Kong Book Fair was packed with parents and their children among an array of ICAC publications. But this year visitors were called to action with a pair of virtual reality (VR) goggles. They were turned into graft-busters collecting "evidence" in a simulated corruption investigation.

Speaking to the ICAC Post, Raymond Ng Kwok-ming, Director of Community Relations said: "The ICAC may not be the first to use VR technology to implement anti-corruption education, but we are definitely ahead of others, both local and overseas, in terms of preventive education."

"During our colleagues' recent exchanges with overseas anti-graft agencies, many international counterparts commended our VR games and were amazed with our idea of using this advanced technology in probity education!" Mr Ng added.

Mr Ng has spent 34 years with the ICAC, contributing his expertise to the Commission's Community Relations Department (CRD). His career saw him handling corruption complaints and public enquiries at Regional Offices, coordinating territory-wide publicity campaigns, producing probity education materials, addressing international anti-corruption conferences and workshops on corporate governance, and even starring in the ICAC TV drama series. Having witnessed the evolution of the ICAC's strategy of community education, Mr Ng is a walking dictionary of Hong Kong's anti-corruption history.