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functional departments also has a separate advisory committee whose membership represents a wide cross-section of the community.
An ICAC complaints committee, comprising seven Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils and a law officer, monitors complaints against the commission and advises the commissioner on any action considered necessary.
Operations
The operations department is responsible for receiving and investigating reports of alleged or suspected offences under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, the ICAC Ordinance and the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Ordinance.
In 1981, the department, received 2 344 corruption complaints compared with 1 772 in 1980, continuing an upward trend in the number of corruption reports received since 1979. Of these, 688 were made by the public in person, either to the commission's 24-hour report centre in the operations department, or to one of the 10 ICAC local offices; 963 complaints by telephone; 62 by letter and 231 reports were referred by other government departments. Over 59 per cent of the complaints were made by people who identify themselves, thus underlining the extent of public confidence in the commission.
Corruption complaints against members of the Royal Hong Kong Police amounted to 735 compared with 523 in 1980, while those against other government departments increased from 717 in 1980 to 820 in 1981. An upward trend was also discernible in complaints alleging corruption in the private sector, 695 such reports were received in 1981 compared with 534 in 1980.
This increase in corruption complaints resulted in a corresponding increase in the number of investigations and prosecutions by the department. The number of people taken to court for corruption and related offences in 1981 reached a record figure of 509, compared with 333 in 1980. At the end of the year, 369 such prosecutions had been completed with 314 convictions, representing a conviction rate of 85 per cent, and 132 cases were still outstanding.
On the advice of the operations review committee, reports concerning 181 serving or former government officers were forwarded to the Secretary for the Civil Service or heads of departments for consideration of disciplinary or administration action.
Corruption Prevention
The corruption prevention department is the commission's executive arm in securing changes in working procedures within government departments and public bodies and in giving advice to all seeking it wherever corruption opportunities are believed to exist.
During the year the department carried out 106 studies of all types, bringing the total since 1974 to 627. Conventional assignments in which the procedures of client departments are studied will remain the primary task of the department. However the work of reviewing, updating and, where necessary, completely reassessing previous studies continued to grow in importance during 1981, when 33 studies were re-examined. This monitoring process is an essential element of corruption prevention work in view of the rapidity with which the government and public bodies change to meet new demands.
The basis of the department's work remains the principle of supervisory accountability – that management not only has a responsibility to ensure that work is done, but also must establish how it is being done and make certain that results are not achieved by unjust or unjustifiable methods which are often the breeding ground for corruption. The external training group of the department continued to explain the concept to officers with