ICAC in Hong Kong

Do you know that the Independent Commission Against Corruption (廉政公署, ICAC for short) of Hong Kong has been cleaning up corruption in many departments of Hong Kong Government since its establishment in 1974?

During 1960s, while Hong Kong was experiencing economic growth, civil servants’ overall salaries were low. Together with the lack of restriction on the officials’ behavior, officials from many departments tried to take advantages of their post to make “extra money”. Even the police would demand “protection fee” and the firemen would ask for money before turning off the water.

Seeing the uselessness of the original Anti-Corruption Branch, damaged done to the society by the notorious Peter Godber Case and Hongkongers’ disdain toward corruption, the British government started to study different anti-corruption laws and decided to set up an independent institute to deal with the problem.

The ICAC was finally established by Governor Murray MacLehose on 15, February, 1974. ICAC, as suggested above, is an independent department that answered only to the Governor of Hong Kong (now answer to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong), with the aim to deal with and prevent corruption through law enforcement and community education, even after the handover to Mainland China in 1997.

It’s a good thing that Hongkongers have ICAC, isn’t it?

Technically speaking, yes.

But what if the officials from ICAC got corrupted? Or, even worse, the Chief Executive, which ICAC is accountable to, got corrupted?

If you have paid attention to Hong Kong’s news, you will find that the “what ifs” are more than just worries.

Two out of three Chief Executives’ (Donald Tsang and CY Leung) seeming involvement in some shady bribery cases; Expense scandal about Commissioner of ICAC, Timothy Tong, granting himself the authority to use entertainment expense which exceed the internal guidelines; Sudden removal of Rebecca Li Bo Lan, the head of ICAC investigative unit, from her post without any reason; the drop in Corruption Perception Index of Hong Kong in the recent years…

Should we Hongkongers be worried? Yes.

But should we lose faith in integrity? Definitely not.