Watching the watchers

THEIR stern warnings blare from thousands of television sets. Posters glare down from office walls. Unfold a newspaper and images of their shamed, hooded captives leap from the page. The message is clear: corruption will be exposed, the perpetrators prosecuted mercilessly.

'Is it worth it?' the faceless TV voice demands, as a corrupt family man watches his wife, child and comfortable home fade to an ominous black.

Every day, Hong Kong trusts in the officers of the Independent Commission Against Corruption to reach into its teeming confusion and pluck out the officials, police and businessmen whose integrity is for sale or rent.

In doing this ICAC officers sometimes work cheek by jowl with those at the edges of a murky underworld,many of whom are seeking or offering enticing rewards. The desperate gambler, the official nurturing a 1997 nest-egg, the weak and the greedy.

During their undercover operations and covert meetings and while extracting revelations from desperate individuals, investigators depend on criminally-connected informants, acting more from self-interest than civic duty.

But as a growing number of people fall into the fast-buck syndrome linked to the handover, what is the ICAC doing to ensure its credibility is not shattered by corruption in its own ranks? Who spies on the spies? Principal Investigator George Yiu Cheuk-wah gives the impression he would rather have his teeth pulled than talk in detail about the sensitivity surrounding his work. For reasons he won't disclose, he refuses to have his photograph taken. Mr Yiu is the head of L Group. He spies on the spies.