TNAG-0260-FCO40-296-Legislation-for-prevention-of-bribery-in-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 151

CONFIDENTIAL

HONG KONG

Draft Prevention of Bribery Bill

APPENDIX A

Corruption exists in Hong Kong in all walks of life. Public attention has particularly concentrated on the Public Service though in the majority of cases where corruption does occur the fault is by no means on one side only.

2.

Present legislation (based to a large extent on UK statutes) and the separate disciplinary regulations to which civil servants are subject are felt to be inadequate in restraining corruption. (Details of the reported incidents of corruption during 1968/69 are at Annex A). A Working Party found the existing legislation to be inadequate especially in relation to :

(a) powers of investigation into alleged offences under the

existing legislation;

(6) the difficulty of discharging the initial burden of proof

which lies on the prosecution;

(c) provisions relating to the reception by the Courts of the

evidence of accomplices.

3.

The Working Party recommended the introduction of new legislation (not the amendment of existing legislation). A Bill for this purpose, drawing on the results of on-the-spot investigations by Hong Kong legal and police officers in Singapore and Ceylon into the anti-corruption legislation of those two countries and its application in practice, was prepared by the Working Party in consultation with those Heads of Departments most concerned and received the general approval of the Hong Kong Advisory Committee on Corruption under the chairmanship of Sir C. Y. Kwan (full membership of the Committee is at Annex B). The Bill applied to civil servants, members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, members and employees of the Urban Council and members and employees of some eighteen statutory bodies (mainly privately owned public utility companies).

CONFIDENTIAL

14.