CPR Vol 1: Inspection of Works in Public Bodies

Section 20 (1) (g) of the PoCA, empowers the ICAC to « examine the practices and procedures of any public body in order to facilitate the discovery of acts of corruption and to secure the revision of methods of work or procedures which, in its opinion, may be conducive to corruption ». This exercise is known as Corruption Prevention Reviews which have been conducted since 2003.

However, in 2006, the ICAC decided to gear these exercises to focus on specific areas of public bodies that are the subject of recurrent complaints or where a corruption investigation uncovers malpractices, instead of a thorough audit of the public body altogether. Corruption Prevention Reviews are undertaken by officers of the System Enhancement branch of the Corruption Prevention and Education division of the ICAC. Each report typically involves a team of five to six analysts for an average of 400 to 500 working hours for each assignment.

The new impetus since 2006 has yielded a significant number of Corruption Prevention Reviews that were communicated to the public body along with recommendations to enhance their systems. Along the years, implementation rate of recommendations of Corruption Prevention Reviews has varied from one public body to the other, although most institutions concerned displayed a genuine drive to comply with ICAC’s views.

This release is the first volume of compilations of Executive Summaries of the 74 Corruption Prevention Reviews undertaken by ICAC so far. The second volume will regroup Corruption Prevention Reviews on Procurement, the third on Recruitment and the final instalment will be a compilation of miscellaneous sectors of activities.