COMMENTS ON FUTURE STRUCTURE AND PROCEDURES OF THE
OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT
OF THE INDEPENDENT COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION
Director of Operations, I.C.A.C.
In confirmation of the numerous and continuing informal discussions between yourself and the undersigned we commit our suggestions to paper. You will know, and we much appreciate, that we have been confined to no narrow brief and our observations cover a wide sphere. For clarity we discuss each aspect under separate headings. We have endeavoured to report concisely our views which, although made with the benefit of experience in the field and with a fresh mind, we realise result from only a short and superficial acquaintance of the unique situation in Hong Kong.
Organisation and Method
There is basically only one issue in this field which we consider important, but if this principle is agreed certain consequential matters arise. It is our belief that investigations into allegations of corruption should encompass both the criminal and disciplinary aspects of the matter: that these two aspects should be fused and investigated simultaneously by the same officer and made the subject of one report. This makes for a deeper investigation, increased efficiency, a saving of time and negatives imputations of two bites at the cherry. Where the criminal matter is first investigated followed by a second investigation on the disciplinary side this means of necessity that much of the same ground has to be covered twice over, that informants, witnesses and suspects often have to be seen twice or more by different case officers and that considerable delay must result.
It is our suggestion, therefore, that the separate 'Disciplinary Cases' group in the proposed structure of the Operations Department, as shown at Annex 'A', should not be inaugurated and that personnel saved should be distributed elsewhere, say to the Syndicated Corruption Group, which appears to us to have objectives which require greater resources. This would of course render the proportional responsibilities of Assistant Director (Operations) far greater than that of his counterpart