Networking to fight fraud

Mingling with high-fliers from overseas anti-corruption agencies was helpful for keeping up with the international corruption scene, local anti-graft officers said after taking part in a training course.

'Getting to know these people is useful as many of them are in senior positions [at their respective agencies] and can provide vital information when necessary,' said ICAC chief investigator Kitty Lau Kit-yin, who specialises in insurance-sector corruption.

The course, which was introduced in the late 1970s by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, attracted 24 people from places as far away as the Bahamas and from institutions such as the World Bank.

Six ICAC officers were among this year's participants.

The four-week course included classroom lectures that drew on some of the ICAC's most high-profile and controversial cases to demonstrate how even the most carefully prepared cases could be challenged in court.

A management module was delivered by Tim Turner, an instructor from the FBI leadership development unit.