2
2
7. The effect of the amendment made by section 6(c)
is that a suspect will be guilty of an offence if he fails to answer a notice under section 14 of the principal Ordinance requiring him to disclose details of his resources and property. Section 6(d) makes it an offence to give false information in answer to such a notice.
8. Section 17(1) of the principal Ordinance is amended by section 9(a) to enable the Commissioner to issue a search warrant for premises which he has reason to believe may contain evidence of an offence. In particular, this means that the Commissioner will not have to be satisfied as to the presence of specific documents before he can grant a warrant.
The amendment does not, however, permit the grant of a warrant for a general "fishing expedition".
9. Section 13 amends section 30 of the principal Ordinance so as to set out specifically five cases in which it will be proper to disclose the identity of a suspect. They are cases in which the suspect must know that he is a suspect so that there is no danger of thwarting an investigation by warning him. With the possible exception of case (a), they are also cases in which persons other than the suspect will inevitably know that he is the subject of an investigation. This provision does not permit the release of more information than is usual in normal criminal investigations and its intro- duction does not mean that there will always be disclosure in the specified cases.
10. The second purpose of the Ordinance is to transfer the investigatory powers conferred by the principal Ordinance to the Commissioner or investigating officers of the Independent Commission against Corruption as appropriate.
11. The Ordinance is as agreed following the exchange of telegrams ending with the Secretary of State's Telegram No. 184 of 15th February, with the following changes:
(a) The new section 10(2) (section 3) was redrafted in
consequence of representations that as originally drafted it was capable of the construction that the presumption could be raised by mere closeness of relationship. This was never intended.
(b) The new section 14B (section 7) was added in Committee so as to provide a right to apply to the District Court where the Commissioner refused consent to a dealing with property the subject of a direction under the new section 14A.
(c) The new section 14C (1) was amended in Committee because of doubts which arose as to the appropriateness of
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