HK Records Drop In Corruption Numbers Last Year: ICAC

The ICAC said on Monday that Hong Kong’s corruption situation remains well under control, with an across-the-board drop in the number of complaints it received last year.

In its annual report, the graft buster said it received a total of 1,835 corruption complaints unrelated to elections in 2022. That accounts for a 19 percent drop from the previous year – and among them, 1,438 cases were pursuable.

It said the civil service and public bodies “remain generally clean and honest”, and complaints involving government bureaus and departments went down by 17 percent to 533, in which 372 were pursuable.

Complaints concerning the private sector, meanwhile, fell by 20 percent to 1,181 – of which 989 were pursuable. Attracting the most complaints, it added, were the building management, construction, as well as the finance and insurance sectors.

The corruption watchdog said it believes the decrease in complaints had to do with a slowdown in economic activities caused by the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In all, it said 204 people were prosecuted last year for non-election offences, and 80 percent of those charged were convicted.

Meanwhile, it received a total of 135 complaints relating to the election committee subsector elections, the Legislative Council polls, the Chief Executive election and the rural representative election that were held after the overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system in 2021.

Separately, the ICAC also announced in its annual report that it will set up an “international anti-corruption academy” to provide training for local and overseas law-enforcement agencies, as well as the local public and private sectors.