XN000022-1994-12-23 — Page 6

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"We conducted a public consultation exercise from April to June to collect opinions from various sectors of the community since we believe that continued public support is crucial to the ICAC's success," Dr Sohmen said.

"In our review, we have taken full account of the views of the community as reflected through over 100 written and oral submissions made to us," he added.

"It is quite clear that the community wish to maintain a strong and effective ICAC which can tackle corruption successfully, and at the same time it wants to secure greater accountability in the use of the Commission's powers so that the rights of the individual will be protected. Throughout the review, we have tried to find the right balance between these demands and expectations," Dr Sohmen said.

"We have made a number of recommendations to improve the commission's accountability. These include measures to strengthen the functions of the Advisory Committee on Corruption, the Operations Review Committee and the ICAC Complaints Committee, and recommendations that the commission should step up its liaison with both the central Government and the Police.

"There cannot be accountability without transparency. We have therefore also suggested that the commission should provide more information on its investigative activities in its annual report. In addition, we consider that ICAC committees should also be accountable to the public by producing annual reports and by briefing the media regularly on their work during the year," Dr Sohmen added.

On the powers of the ICAC, Dr Sohmen said the committee was of the view that the ICAC would continue to need its special investigatory powers to fight corruption, particularly in the face of an increase in corruption reports during the past two years. "Members agreed that corruption offences are particularly difficult to investigate," he said.

However, he added, to provide better safeguards for the rights of the individual, the committee has recommended that the following powers should be transferred from. the commission to the courts:

the powers to obtain certain types of information.

the powers of search, and

the power to restrain the disposal of property.

In addition, the committee has recommended that a suspect whose travel document has been retained by the ICAC should be given the choice of applying to the Commissioner or to the courts for its return. At present he can only make such an application to the Commissioner.