SECRET AND PERSONAL
10.
Individual officers under ICAC surveillance are notified under strict confidence to the Commissioner of Police who is then bound either to ensure the officer is in a post where temptation is minimal or to supersede him when under consideration for promotion. This clearly breeds suspicion within the Force as it is not possible to state reasons for postings or supersessions.
11.
Whilst in Hong Kong, I reported personally to His Excellency The Acting Governor, Sir Denys Roberts, on my misgivings on ICAC interrogation procedures which often inferred culpability by
association.
12. I stated that, in my opinion, if ICAC had not adequate evidence to proceed against an officer, this should be decided in the shortest possible time and the officer be unconditionally cleared.
13. At the time of my visit there was one senior European officer who had been under interdiction for some months and the decision by ICAC as to whether or not he was to be proceeded against was dragging on interminably with obvious adverse effects both on him personally and on the administration of the Police Force.
14.
I learned that there were other senior police officers (3 European and 4 Chinese) under ICAC surveillance and, as stated above (paragraph 10), in these cases the Commissioner of Folice has no alternative but to ensure they are not employed in any vulnerable area in the Force.
15. I discussed the situation with the Secretary for the Civil Service who clearly had reservations on the fairness of existing procedures and their effect on the morale of the Force.
16.
The ICAC apparatus has now assumed mammoth proportions (close on 1000 employees) and operates like an octopus in its surveillance of the community.
17.
I sensed discontent likewise in the Police that equivalent ranks in ICAC enjoyed special remunerative benefits presumably to ensure that the organisation itself was free from corruption! Yet, I was reliably informed that, as a result of high salaries and allowances, some members of ICAC were enjoying a standard of living far beyond what they could have hoped for in normal employment in the public service. One might well ask, in this context, what is corruption?
18.
In my interview with Mr Cater, the Commissioner of ICAC, I was informed in strict confidence that there were in the Police approxi- mately 15-16 "syndicates" under enquiry totalling between 15-100 individuals in each, in some cases up to the rank of Superintendent all suspected of indulging in corrupt practices.
SECRET AND PERSONAL
/19.
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