TNAG-0260-FCO40-296-Legislation-for-prevention-of-bribery-in-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 66

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CONFIDENTIAL

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The bill has been scrutinised by the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police and the Establishment Officer in the light of the comments received and it has been recognised that some of them have validity and warrant amendments. Apart from points of drafting, the major amendments now proposed and included in the draft bill at Annex D are as follows:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Clause 2: (Interpretation) Definition of 'public body". Paragraph (e) which includes in this definition "any Government department or undertaking" is deleted, since 'the Government" appears under paragraph (a) of the definition.

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Paragraph (g) of the definition (that is "any board, commission, committee or other body which has power to act under or for the purposes of any en- actment in force in the Colony;") casts the net too widely and would have the effect of making such persons as solicitors and trustees of charities in- corporated by Ordinance into public servants. It is therefore proposed to delete this paragraph and to replace it by a schedule to the bill, in which will be listed those bodies which it is thought should be covered. The draft bill accordingly includes utility companies, which operate under a monopoly franchise. The bill will provide that amendments to this schedule may be made by order by the Governor in Council.

Clause 3: Bribery.

The words "whether for himself or any other public servant" have been deleted, since this phrase might en- able a public servant to claim that he had accepted an illicit present for someone who is not a public servant (e. g. for a relative).

Clauses 5, 6 and 7:

These clauses deal with bribes given to a public servant for helping over contracts, with bribery for procuring withdrawal of tenders and with bribery in connection with auctions. In all cases the defence of "lawful authority or reasonable excuse" has now been included, though it is unlikely to be of much practical importance in the cir- cumstances covered by these clauses.

Clause 8: Bribery of public servants by persons having

dealings with public bodies.

It has been realised that this clause has wider ramifications than were originally appreciated. For example, a shop- keeper who supplies goods to the Government Supplies Department would be guilty of an offence if he sent a Christmas present to an officer in the Immigration De- partment. The clause has been redrawn so as to limit its application to cases where the public servant given the advantage works in the particular branch of the Govern- ment with which the person who offered the advantage has the dealings; for example, a person offering the advantage to an officer of the Supplies Department must actually have dealings with that department.

CONFIDENTIAL