TNAG-0735-FCO40-939-Policy-objective-for-the-developing-of-Hong-Kong-in-the-1980-1978 — Page 183

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THE ICAC

25 The Independent Commission Against Corruption has continued its successful and many-sided operation.

26

Since the "partial Amnesty" on 5 November last year the question in many minds has been whether things would slip back into the bad old ways, in spite of the apparent determination of the Government not to allow them to do

so. The Commissioner assures me that the re is no

evidence that anything of the sort has happened, nor has there been any retrogression as far as syndicated

corruption is concerned. We should remember that the

resources of the powerful Operations Department are now freed from delving into the past and able to concentrate on investigating and monitoring the present. The whole

position within both the public and private sectors is transformed from what it was four or five years ago. This

is an extraordinary achievement in which many have played a

part as well as the ICAC, and in which all of us can take

pride.

27 In most other communities there is an element of

corruption. Here, where recently there has been so much

public revelation of wide-scale corruption, we must accept

that there is much more to be done.

more

There will always

be some people ready to indulge in corruption, and we must

therefore be vigilant and equipped to prevent a