Hong Kong corruption reports fall 13 percent

Corruption reports in Hong Kong fell 13 percent last year, Commissioner Raymond Wong said Wednesday.

He told reporters that the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) received 3,746 reports, excluding election-related complaints, and the reports concerning government departments fell 17 percent to 1,286, while those for the private sector fell 12 percent to 2,176.

Reviewing the commission's work in the past year and announcing its major initiatives, Wong said it will adopt a proactive investigative strategy to unearth corruption, and offer timely prevention services to both the government and private sectors to ensure Hong Kong will remain one of the world's cleanest cities.

In the public sector, he said the commission is concerned with incidences of misuse of authority in awarding contracts and involvement of individual law enforcement officers in illegal activities.

Wong said the ICAC and the Civil Service Bureau will jointly organize a forum in June for senior government officers and business leaders to share experience on ethical management, which will take the Civil Service Integrity Entrenchment and Business Ethics Promotion Programs a step further.

Under the programs, 25 departments have been visited and 500 listed companies have been approached to help them formulate preventive strategies.

This year the ICAC will also help the government logistics department set up an effective monitoring mechanism on direct purchases, and assist various works departments in strengthening their guidelines on staff integrity, Wong told reporters.

He said the commission will also proactively assist non-government bodies receiving substantial government subventions to adopt corruption prevention measures.

Last year, the financial and insurance industry was among the sectors attracting a large number of complaints, said Wong.

He said that the majority were related to corruption-facilitated financial frauds, such as bribing financial advisers or accounting staff to inflate business turnover to facilitate listing, manipulation of company share prices, misappropriating company funds, or credit fraud.

During the year, the commission's Financial Investigation Section conducted financial investigations in relation to 1,305 transactions, involving over 1.4 billion HK dollars (179 million US dollars), said Wong.

Source: Xinhua