ENG-2015 — Page 323

15

Public Order

Illegal immigrants or persons subject to removal or deportation orders are prohibited under section 38AA of the Immigration Ordinance from taking employment, whether paid or unpaid, and 236 people were prosecuted under that provision in 2015.

Independent Commission Against Corruption

Hong Kong is internationally acclaimed as a city with a clean civil service, a level playing field for doing business and a society intolerant of corruption. International studies released in 2015 recognised the territory as one of the world's least corrupt places, including the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index and the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index.

Established 41 years ago, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) safeguards Hong Kong's deep-rooted culture of probity through a holistic strategy of enforcement, prevention and education. Its independence is enshrined in the Basic Law and the organisation. is backed by a community highly intolerant of corruption.

According to the 2015 ICAC Annual Survey, 97 per cent of respondents expressed support for the commission. On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 representing total rejection and 10 representing total acceptance, the respondents' tolerance level of corruption registered a mean score of 0.6, the lowest since the question was first raised in 2010. Only 1.3 per cent of them said they had encountered corruption in the past 12 months.

In 2015, the ICAC received 2,798 non-election-related corruption complaints, 18 per cent more than in 2014. Of these complaints, 65 per cent concerned the private sector, 28 per cent concerned government departments and 7 per cent concerned public bodies.

Enforcement

In 2015, 213 people were prosecuted for corruption and related offences, and 35 were cautioned for minor offences on the advice of the Department of Justice. At the year end, 1,737 cases, including 418 related to elections, were under investigation. Prosecutions of major public interest included cases relating to alleged corruption and misconduct by government officers, fraud and corruption involving listed companies, and suspected corruption relating to tender- rigging in building renovation works. Of the completed prosecutions, 84 per cent of the cases resulted in convictions.

During the year, 596 complaints were received regarding the 2015 Rural Representative Election and 2015 District Council Election.

Prevention and Education

In 2015, the ICAC tailor-made corruption prevention guides or training packages for various sectors, including the construction, retail and catering industries. It issued a checklist on membership administration to more than 200 organisations whose members were eligible for electing their representatives to sit on the corresponding Legislative Council functional constituencies. Other initiatives included an integrity guide for business operators that had dealings with public servants and sample codes of conduct for non-governmental organisations in the welfare sector.

267