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3
Wednesday, November 18, 1970
The Target Committee was set up by the Commissioner of Police in
1961, consisting of a Deputy Commissioner of Police, the Director of Criminal
Investigation, the Director of the Anti-Corruption Branch, and a representative
of the Establishment Secretary.
Its terms of reference were to assess information on corruption,
and to decide which allegations should be investigated, and in what priority,
by the anti-corruption branch.
It also determined what information should be passed to other
government departments or to other parts of the police force, and was
responsible for keeping the Commissioner informed on the incidence of
corruption generally, and of any important cases of that kind.
Composition Widened
The Advisory Committee had recommended this Committee's composition
be widened so as to achieve a majority of members who did not belong to the
police force, and the Government had accepted this in principle.
He stressed that the Target Committee had been set up administratively,
and had not been mentioned either in any existing legislation or in the
Bill. But the Government recognised that its existence and composition was
a matter of legitimate public interest, and that public confidence in the
Committee would be an important factor in the successful implementation of
the Bill's provisions.
For these reasons, a number of important changes would be made with
regard to the Comittee's staff and functions.
/Its