PUBLIC ORDER
328
During the year, the department completed 105 detailed studies into corruption prone areas, including purchasing and tendering, management of government funds, contract administration, law enforcement, licensing and registration systems. Priority was given, and expeditious advice rendered as necessary, to problem areas revealed in cases investigated by the Operations Department to ensure that loopholes being exploited could be promptly plugged.
The department also provided prompt corruption prevention advice, through 288 consultation exercises, to government departments and public bodies when new legislation, procedures or policies were being formulated. The department also assisted public bodies listed under the anti-graft law to draw up or to review their staff codes of conduct.
For the private sector, the department provided free and confidential corruption prevention advice to various organisations on 334 occasions, to assist them in enhancing their internal control systems and promulgating staff codes of conduct.
The department continued to produce Best Practice Packages which have proved to be effective tools for different organisations to establish anti-corruption systems. Packages concerning the management of government funds and direct purchases by government departments were produced during the year.
Community Education
The Community Relations Department is tasked to educate the public on the evils of corruption and enlist the community's support in the fight against it. Community education efforts were launched through the use of the mass media and liaison activities conducted by a network of eight Regional Offices.
Maintaining a clean civil service remained a top priority for the department. Under the Civil Service Integrity Programme, 67 departments had drawn up or reviewed their departmental guidelines. In addition, 1 016 corruption prevention talks were given for over 25 000 staff from 51 departments. To further promote integrity management in the public and private sectors, the department jointly organised with the Civil Service Bureau the 'Leadership Forum 2002 Ethical Challenges for Business and Government Leaders', in December.
To sharpen Hong Kong's competitive edge as an international tourist destination, the department has joined hands with six tourism-related organisations to embark on an ethics promotion programme. A key feature of the programme will be a trade-wide conference to be held in March 2003 for practitioners to exchange views on corruption prevention.
As an ongoing mission to promote ethical practices in individual industries, the department has secured the support of the insurance regulatory body in incorporating an ICAC training course as a core subject in the Continuous Professional Development Programme for insurance intermediaries. More than 16 training seminars for over 12 173 insurance intermediaries were conducted during the year.
In youth education, the department continued to cultivate positive values among young people through the mass media and the Internet, in addition to direct contacts through classroom talks and interactive activities. A new initiative during the year was the launch of the ICAC moral education website to provide online teaching materials suitable for use by teachers, from kindergarten to secondary school level. In June, the department launched a 'Corporate Governance for the New Generation' Study