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SCMP Reporter

HONGKONG'S anti-graft task force, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, wants more staff to help it cope with an anticipated surge in political complaints and malpractice within the disciplined services.

  A current review of resources is likely to recommend a staff increase in the region of 10 per cent of the operations department, which has 500 investigators and 300 support staff.

  It is understood the additional personnel would mainly be investigators.

  The ICAC's assistant director of operations, Tony Kwok Man-wai, said it expected political complaints to soar because of elections for the district boards in 1994 and the Legislative Council in 1995.

  In the past 10 years, the ICAC has received 558 complaints about elections, with more than 60 per cent stemming from the district boards. As a result of investigations, 34 people were charged and 17 convicted.

  But more district board members will be returned by direct elections next year than ever before, and the ICAC fears an associated rise in corruption.

  There could be a similar problem in Legco, with the number of directly-elected members increasing to 20 in 1995.

  Although the conviction for bribery of Legco member Gilbert Leung Kam-ho would have had a deterrent effect on election-related corruption, Mr Kwok said the ICAC needed more manpower as these investigations were difficult and time consuming.

  Leung was jailed for three years last week for trying to buy votes in the 1991 Legco election.

  Ten ICAC staff worked full-time for four months on the Leung case gathering enough evidence to bring him to trial. On the day of Leung's arrest, more than 100 staff were involved.

  In addition to election-related corruption, Mr Kwok said more staff were needed to cope with a disturbing rise in corruption within the immigration, customs and police departments.

  Police are formulating plans to prevent the spread of corruption among senior officers, and ICAC Commissioner Bertrand de Speville said in April that public concern about a surge in major corruption could turn out to be well-founded.

  Recent clampdowns have also led to arrests of immigration and customs officers.

  Mr Kwok said the ICAC had not asked for any additional resources since it took on election-related cases in 1982.

  The ICAC was cut by five per cent mainly in its community relations department in the last financial year under the Government's austerity drive, in addition to the one per cent across-the-board savings for all government departments. The cut was estimated to have saved about $15 million.

   The estimated 1993-94 expenditure budget is $386 million.

  Set up in 1974 in the wake of widespread public sector corruption, the ICAC has four departments - administration, operations, prevention and community relations.

  There are about 800 staff in the operations department including investigators and supporting staff, 60 in corruption prevention, more than 200 in community relations and about 80 in administration.

  Legislative Councillor James To Kun-sun, the United Democrats' spokesman on security, supported the ICAC's call, saying a fair and clean system was important to Hongkong's continued prosperity.

 But he said the commission would have to justify the number of additional staff it was requesting.

  ''We should give more resources to the ICAC to prepare for the problems to arise in the near future,'' Mr To said.

  ''If the Government shows its determination to fight corruption, it will have a deterrent effect on potential bribery.''   A criminology lecturer at the University of Hongkong's sociology department, Dr Jon Vagg, said more thought should be given to corruption prevention and education.

  ''The operations department is already the largest and corruption is on the rise. If more is spent on corruption prevention and education, then a large operations department may not be needed,'' he said.

  ''The amount of corruption will not be much affected by the size of the ICAC unless it is addressing problems such as the causes, opportunities and social attitudes on corruption.'' 



ICAC calls for extra manpower