ENG-1998 — Page 374

PUBLIC ORDER

298

Cross-boundary Liaison

The mutual assistance scheme with the Mainland continued to operate effectively. In 1998, investigators visited the Mainland on 12 occasions and assisted investigators from the Mainland in making enquiries in Hong Kong on 31 occasions.

The Mainland Liaison Office of the Community Relations Department also stepped up co-operation and liaison with various organisations in the Mainland. During the year, talks were given to about 3 900 Mainland officials visiting Hong Kong. A new legal guide for businessmen engaged in cross-boundary trade was jointly produced with the Guangdong Provincial People's Procuratorate. In November, the Commissioner led a delegation to visit the procuratorates, law enforcement agencies and other government agencies in Beijing and Guangzhou.

Checks and Balances

The commission is subject to a stringent system of checks and balances to minimise the possibility of any abuse of power.

Apart from judicial supervision of some of its powers, the work of the commission was scrutinised by four advisory committees the Advisory Committee on Corruption, the Operations Review Committee, the Corruption Prevention Advisory Committee and the Citizens Advisory Committee on Community Relations.

An independent ICAC Complaints Committee, which comprises members of the Executive and Legislative Councils and other prominent citizens, monitors the handling of complaints against its officers. The ICAC also has an internal investigation group which oversees the conduct of its officers and investigates complaints against them.

Into the 25th year of operation

The ICAC will continue to fight corruption in every area of public and private life. It will enhance its professional ability to unearth and investigate increasingly complex and sophisticated corruption-related crime, step up its preventive service, and sharpen the focus and strengthen the effectiveness of its education effort.

Government Laboratory

A wide range of specialist forensic science services is available to the criminal justice system in Hong Kong through the Forensic Science Division of the Government Laboratory. These services are provided mainly to law and order-related government departments but private sector and subvented organisations also use them on a cost- recovery basis. The division aims to provide an impartial, accurate and efficient service to clients. Its laboratory operation is monitored under the rules of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/ Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB), from which it has accredited status.

The division's work spans seven specialist sections in two broad groups. One of these, the Drugs and Toxicology group was restructured at the beginning of the year to improve the turnover time for analytical toxicology and drugs of abuse analysis. In the latter area, the situation was helped to some extent by a drop in case input following the general downward trend in crime figures in Hong Kong. The group deals with a large volume of cases including illicit drugs analysis in cases of possession, trafficking and manufacture, possession of controlled pharmaceutical