Road to 5**：Corruption
【明報專訊】Corruption is the use of improper or illegal means to make gains. These means include bribery, racketeering, extortion and the improper use of insider information. Corruption often happens in a society without adequate oversight. Hong Kong's Prevention of Bribery Ordinance outlaws corruption and bribery by public office holders, workers in private organisations and ordinary citizens.
Fall in corruption complaints
In 2019, the Independent Commission Against Corruption(ICAC) received 2297 complaints that were not related to elections. 2015 of them were traceable complaints. There were 647 complaints involving governmental departments, a fall of 8 percent from 2018, when there were 706 cases. There were more complaints against the police than the other governmental departments. But the number fell from 200 in 2018 to 182 in 2019. Martin Liao(廖長江), chairman of the advisory committee on corruption, said it remained to be seen whether the 2019 figure was related to anti-amendment protests.
China's fight against corruption
The central government has launched a vigorous drive against corruption in recent years. President Xi Jinping(習近平) said in 2012 that as the problem of corruption grew in intensity, it would lead to the demise of the Communist Party or even China if it was not tackled. In November 2017, the People's Congress announced that the National Supervisory Commission(國家監察委員會)would be the highest supervisory agency of the country, and that supervisory commissions would be established in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, autonomous prefectures and other administrative regions.
CE not covered
After Former Chief Executive Donald Tsang(曾蔭權) was involved in controversies following his acceptance of hospitalities from tycoons in February 2012, the government announced the establishment of the Independent Review Committee for the Prevention and Handling of Potential Conflicts of Interests chaired by Andrew Li(李國能), the former Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal. In May 2012 the commission published a report and made a number of suggestions, including the expansion of the scope of Articles 3 and 8 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance so as to apply to the Chief Executive and the establishment of an independent commission to examine and approve the CE's acceptance of interests. However, many years have passed but these suggestions have not been adopted. In June 2019 Ming Pao inquired the government about the progress of the matter. The government said that the suggested amendments had to do with the regulations concerning the HKSAR's political system as well as the CE's constitutional status, and the government had to study them carefully.
Translated by Terence Yip
[通通識 第648期]
