Among the corruption complaints received by the ICAC in recent years, on average only about 7% were related to public bodies. Despite the relative small number of complaints, the ICAC never let its guard down. The ICAC Annual Survey consistently shows that the Hong Kong community is highly intolerant of corruption. Integrity management hence plays a vital role in furthering good governance of any organisation and fostering public confidence.
There are currently over 100 public bodies in Hong Kong, ranging from organisations with a few staff members to listed companies with over 10,000 employees. While the business nature, scales and operation modes of these organisations may vary, their services are closely related to people’s livelihood, such as licensing, regulation, holding franchise rights and using large amounts of public funds. They are therefore defined as “public bodies” under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and the employees and members of the governing body of these public bodies are regarded as “public servants”.
To strengthen corruption prevention education of public bodies’ staff and entrench the integrity culture in these organisations, the ICAC’s Community Relations Department had launched a two-year Integrity Promotion Campaign for Public Bodies in 2020/21.
A highlight of the Campaign was the Conference on Ethical Leadership for Public Bodies in October this year. The event attracted over 200 representatives from the management or board members of around 80 public bodies.
Welcoming participants at the opening ceremony, the ICAC’s Director of Community Relations Ho Wai-chi called upon public bodies in Hong Kong to earnestly adopt integrity management and support the promotion of a probity culture in their organisations. He noted that the operation of public bodies had a significant impact on public interests and members of the public rightfully had high expectations on the ethical conduct of public officials.
The ICAC Citizens Advisory Committee on Community Relations member Quince Chong Wai-yan, who was also a senior management of a public organisation in Hong Kong, shared with participants the importance of integrity in achieving sustainable development for public bodies.
Other ICAC speakers included ICAC’s Director of Investigation Eric Tong Wing-tak, Assistant Director of Community Relations Corinna Wong Kit-mui and Assistant Director of Corruption Prevention Kenneth Wong Kwok-hung. They expounded on the latest corruption scene concerning public bodies, as well as the ICAC’s initiatives in promoting an ethical culture and enhancing corruption risk management system.
A wide variety of anti-corruption education and training resources, including a one-stop thematic website, training videos, e-learning modules, integrity promotion information package, were produced for public bodies’ staff members to enhance their awareness and understanding of the requirements of anti-corruption laws, as well as the key elements of integrity management.
For more details about the Integrity Promotion Campaign for Public Bodies, please visit the ICAC’s thematic website (https://www.icac.org.hk/pb/en).
Previous Issue
