ENG-1993 — Page 340

PUBLIC ORDER

290

Obtaining a restaurant licence can take six months to a year and many restaurants commence business before being licensed. The department worked closely with the Urban Services Department and Regional Services Department to speed up and improve the process. Measures included closer co-ordination of the government departments involved and making the process clearer to applicants.

The department's Advisory Services Group provided tailor-made advice to 176 organisations during the year, covering purchasing, merchandising and the legality of offering or accepting rebates. The group also assisted companies to draw up policies on business ethics. With the issue, in mid-1993, of the Secretary for Home Affairs' code of practice on procurement of supplies and services by owners' corporations of buildings, requests for advice on that subject increased considerably.

Community Relations

The Community Relations Department educates the public against the evils of corruption and enlists community support to fight the problem; it also aims to promote higher ethical standards in social and business matters. It works through the mass media, as well as personal approaches to different target audiences.

The department's eight regional offices act as a focal point for carrying out anti-corruption liaison work and providing preventive education services to the local community.

The department continued to place emphasis on the commercial and manufacturing sectors. Corruption prevention packages were produced for various trades to help chief executives identify corruption-prone areas in their companies and to take preventive measures. During the year, the department established personal contacts with 3476 companies to introduce these packages to them. The department also used direct mail to put across anti-corruption messages to 5 748 small companies in the plastics and restaurant industries.

With the rapidly increasing volume of trade across the border with China, there was growing concern about some business practices infringing the anti-bribery laws of Hong Kong. In response, the department produced a set of comprehensive guidelines on the legality of such practices and suggested various measures for corruption prevention. Over 10 000 copies were printed for distribution to Hong Kong-China trade operators. For the longer term, the department will deploy additional manpower for in-depth study of the problem and development of co-operation with China's anti-corruption agencies.

A total of 37 organisations from both the private and public sectors took part in the department's Community Participation Programme, under which they organised their own anti-corruption activities, receiving a small ICAC subsidy towards the cost of these activities.

The department also conducted talks and seminars for some 19 680 existing staff members and new recruits of government departments and public bodies during the year.

On the media front, it continued to make use of television and radio advertisements, as well as advertising on buses to motivate the public to support the ICAC's work and to report corruption offences.

For primary and secondary schools, the department initiated a school-based curriculum development programme, through which 6 235 students in seven schools teamed up with ICAC officers to develop a moral education curriculum targeted specifically at the needs of