Mag A 3
Mr Murray
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
HONG KONG: CORRUPTION
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CONFIDENTIAL
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1. Lord Goronwy-Roberts minuted on Mr Milton's submission of 13 January concerning the activities of the Independent Commission Against Corruption that there seemed to be a strong case, widely supported, for the appointment of an Ombudsman in Hong Kong and that he would like to be informed of my discussion with the Overseas Police Adviser on the general question of the operations of the ICAC
and the need for some control over their operations.
2.
The ICAC was set up as a direct result of several widely publicized scandals about corruption in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force (RHKP) and in business and official life in Hong Kong generally. The ICAC has now been in effective operation for about three years. According to the official claims made by Mr Cater, the Commissioner of ICAC, and by the Governor of Hong Kong, the back of the corruption problem in Hong Kong has now been broken through the ICAC activities. It is maintained however that the Commission must continue its activities in order to wipe out residual pockets of corruption and to maintain sufficient pressure to prevent a recrudescence of such activity. The Governor has said in his Annual Review for 1976 that the fight against
violent crime and corruption remains his top priority. On the other hand, I have learnt informally, both from Mr Cater and others, that there are still a large number of senior police officers in the RHKP who are under surveillance or suspicion and I have been told on quite good authority that some ten corruption syndicates, numbering about 1,000 police officers, are still operating in the RHKP.
3.
There is no doubt at all that the activities of the ICAC have had very considerable effects on the morale of the Police Force, certain sectors of the Government Service, e.g. Public Works Department, and large sectors of the business and commercial community. Opposition to ICAC operations in the business and commercial community derives from two sources; first from the ordinary reasonably honest businessmen who have been used all their working lives to giving and THIS IS A COPY
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