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商廠
C. M. A.
3.
The Action Committee be authorised to proceed with all matters concerning the problems with the object to securing a solution.
The position of the 354 Associations, their determination to stamp out corruption and dishonest business practices and their grave anxiety concerning the present indiscriminate legislation, which strikes at honest and dishonest alike was made clear by a speech, notes for which are attached (see enclosure 2). Copies are already in the hands of Your Chief Secretary, Your Attorney-General and Mr. Jack Cater.
The undersigned Associations which compose that Action Committee would like to summarise below the views expressed by the 354 Associations, in the hope that Your Excellency will give them sympathetic consideration.
1. (a)
(b)
Section 9(1) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordi- nance makes it an offence for an agent to accept, without his principal's permission, an advantage as an inducement to a reward for doing or not doing an act in relation to the principal's business. The purpose of that sub-section is to prevent an employee from acting dishonestly and/or contrary to the interest of his employer. All the Associations agree with this provision, subject to what they say in point 5.
But section 9(2) provides that the giver of an "advantage" (i.e. commissions
(i.e. commissions also commits an
offence if the receiver has not obtained his employer's permission to receive it whether or not such commission is to the detriment of such employer. The Associations find it difficult to accept that provision, because the methods of conducting business are intricate and varied: the terms of an employment contract between an employer and an employee (including those relat- ing to salaries, commissions and remuneration) are unknown to third parties; third parties
(i.e. the payers) have no right whatsoever to probe into the details of the agent's contract with his principal.