Tougher law is needed to fight bribery in city
One of the goals of the Basic Law is to help maintain Hong Kong’s long-held reputation as an international finance centre.
Successful anti-corruption efforts are key to this.
While the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s efforts to eliminate corruption from the police system have led many to say that Hong Kong has been effectively tackling bribery, it is actually lagging behind many jurisdictions, especially the UK with its Bribery Act.
Two of the main deficiencies of Chapter 201 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance lie in how it fails to classify bribing foreign officials and failing to prevent bribery as offences.
Hong Kong is connected with many countries, and in particular with the mainland, and failing to outlaw bribery of foreign [or mainland] officials means that bribery can occur with impunity and that a bribing culture will thrive. By not making failure to prevent bribery an offence, an ethical culture cannot be promoted within companies and there will still be numerous opportunities to bribe. These missing clauses should be added to the ordinance as soon as possible.
Another flaw of the ordinance is how it does not provide enough checks on the chief executive and ensure that officials investigating the chief executive are impartial and independent. In particular, the ICAC commissioner and secretary for justice, who usually lead such investigations, are both appointed by the chief executive. The Legislative Council should immediately act to rectify the current situation.