The ICAC will issue a new anti-graft guidebook to building managers, after corruption complaints against them have risen steadily in the past three years. The book warns building managers about possible corruption risks, lists the relevant laws, and provides a code of conduct for owners' corporations and other management bodies. The Independent Commission Against Corruption received 933 complaints about building management last year, compared with 809 in 2002 and 696 in 2001. Of the corruption reports received last year, 753 were pursuable. There were 661 and 570 pursuable cases in 2002 and 2001, respectively. In the first quarter of this year, 155 of the 199 complaints received were pursuable. But there were only 15 prosecutions relating to corrupt building management practices last year, compared with 26 cases in 2002 and 18 cases in 2001. Lawrence Tse Kin-kuen, head of the ICAC's building management taskforce, said the surge in complaints was partly attributed to a rise in the number of reports relating to the management of public housing, such as Home Ownership Scheme estates which employed private management companies. Of the 933 complaints last year, 213 involved the management of public housing, compared with 192 in 2002 and 106 in 2001. Mr Tse said there were also more complaints about the tendering of building maintenance projects. About half of last year's complaints were related to tenders or contractual problems. The ICAC also noted that a growing proportion of building management corruption complaints involved owners' corporations or committees - from 45.3 per cent in 2001 to 49.3 per cent in 2002 and 53.7 per cent last year. Mr Tse said one reason behind the trend was that members of owners' corporations or committees usually had little or no experience in building management. For example, he said some corporations keep tender bids in a shoe box, instead of a secured case. The taskforce chief said about 60 per cent of the 753 pursuable reports on building management last year were simple cases or complaints based on little more than speculation.