5.
I am pleased that almost all issues of concern to the Bills Committee have been resolved to the satisfaction of members. The Administration has agreed to a number of Committee Stage amendments, which I will be moving later this afternoon.
The Committee Stage amendments
I will now describe the major amendments to the Bill. I will propose that clause 1 should be amended so that the Ordinance will come into operation on a date to be appointed by notice in the Gazette. By virtue of section 20 subsection (3) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance, it will be possible for different dates to be fixed for different provisions. The ICAC will need some lead-time before some of the new provisions can be brought into operation. This is the case, for example, where the provisions require court applications to be made. Members of the Bills Committee have, however, asked me to undertake to bring all provisions into effect as soon as practicable, and I agree to do so.
Clause 4 is to be amended so that further restrictions are placed on the Commissioner's powers of investigation under section 13 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. That section enables the Commissioner to require persons to produce certain documents. The Chairman of the Bills Committee had proposed that the powers under section 13 should be subject to court control. The Administration considers that a distinction should be made between requirements imposed under the section directed at suspects, and those directed at third parties (such as banks). Where a suspect is required to disclose a document, he may be required (in effect) to incriminate himself. This being so, we accept that there is a case for imposing court control over such requirements.
We do not believe there is any similar justification for requiring a court order before third parties can be required to produce documents relating to a suspect. Moreover, precedents exist in the Securities and Futures Commission Ordinance and the Companies Ordinance for a power to require the production of documents without any court control.
The Committee Stage amendment in respect of section 13 therefore imposes court control over requirements directed at a suspect. It also restricts the scope of section 13 -
by restoring to section 14 (and therefore imposing court control over) the power to require a person in charge of a public body to furnish. documents to the ICAC;
by deleting references to safe-deposit boxes; and