Hong Kong's graft-buster ICAC appoints first-ever woman to lead its operations department
Prominent investigator Rebecca Li will serve as deputy commissioner and head of operations as it tackles some of its highest-profile cases yet
For the first time in its 40-year history, the Independent Commission Against Corruption has appointed a woman to head up the operations department at the core of its anti-graft mission.
The appointment of Rebecca Li Bo-lan as the new deputy commissioner and head of operations will be effective tomorrow. She has been serving as one of the two directors of the 800-person department, overseeing its work with the private sector.
As the ICAC goes through a momentous period in its history, pursuing several high-profile cases including one against its former commissioner, Li's appointment appears to show that the anti-corruption agency is getting to grips with a succession problem in the senior ranks of its operations department.
Recently, two senior investigators have come out of retirement to fill key posts, including Ryan Wong Sai-chiu, 63, who retired in 2012 as one of the two directors of investigations. He was called back as head of operations, and Li will replace him.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Wong gave only short answers when commenting on his successor but twice described Li as "very qualified", and when asked, said he had confidence that she would be able to take on the "big tigers".
Former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and former ICAC commissioner Timothy Tong Hin-ming are among the key figures the graft-fighter has investigated in recent years. The Department of Justice is expected to decide by September whether to charge Tsang.
Before Wong took up the post as head of the operations department in 2012, Li went through a selection process for the position but was ruled out for not having the necessary experience.
Having joined the ICAC as an assistant investigation officer, Li, now 52, made a name for herself by leading the investigation of several high-profile corruption cases including the arrest of Mo Yuk-ping, the wife of the jailed Shanghai tycoon Chau Ching-ngai, who was convicted in 2006 of manipulating the shares of her husband's former company.
Wong said the "brain drain" that affected his department for several years, as investigators left to join banks' compliance teams, had eased in the past two years.
Meanwhile, controversy is growing over the emails of a Milan-based cyber-security firm, recently revealed by WikiLeaks, that show the ICAC was interested in acquiring technology that could intercept citizens' encrypted computer and phone data.
"An attempt to enhance our professional [detective] capabilities does not mean a departure from our principle to act only within the law," Wong said yesterday, without confirming or denying it used covert spyware.
