In tackling complex corruption-related fraud cases, the Independent Commission Against Corruption's Financial Investigation Section last year handled financial analysis and tracing assets in 105 cases.

These cases involved 164 companies and 2,418 transactions, with a total value of $5.3 billion, said ICAC Commissioner Raymond Wong.

Conviction rate stands at 85%

Mr Wong said the overall corruption situation remained stable, while the civil service was relatively clean.

Last year, the ICAC received 4,310 corruption complaints, a 1% decrease from 2002. Of these complaints, 57% were related to the private sector, 36% concerned government departments, and 7% were against public bodies.

During the year, 416 people were prosecuted for corruption and related offences, with the conviction rate at 85%.

Speaking at a press briefing today, Mr Wong said as the ICAC approaches its 30th anniversary, public support for has continued to grow while the community in general does not tolerate corruption.

ICAC enjoys high public confidence

According to independent annual surveys commissioned by the ICAC in recent years, it has enjoyed a high degree of public confidence. Last year, 99.3% of those polled said the anti-corruption agency deserved their support.

These surveys also showed that the public was highly intolerant of corruption in both the public and private sectors, Mr Wong said.

In these surveys, a zero to 10-point scale, with zero representing total rejection and 10 total tolerance of corruption, has been used to gauge the public's attitude towards corruption.

Record low tolerance for civil-service corruption

Last year, the tolerance level in regard to civil-service corruption hit a record low with a mean score of 0.9.

The Commissioner also pointed out that in the past two years, up to 72% of the corruption complaints received by the ICAC were non-anonymous, reflecting a high degree of public trust in the anti-corruption agency.

Despite stringent resources, Mr Wong pledged that the Commission would nonetheless continue to fight corruption without fear or favour.

Also, the ICAC would make every effort to maintain the effectiveness of its frontline service, he stressed.

Commission strengthens intelligence capability

The ICAC would re-deploy its resources to strengthen its intelligence capability to combat serious or organised corruption, as part of its proactive strategy.

To focus its education efforts in major areas of concern, the ICAC has launched a two-year Business Ethics Programme for listed companies and conducted corruption prevention studies on procurement procedures for government departments.

As the building management sector attracted a relatively large number of corruption complaints last year, the Commission will produce corruption prevention guidebooks on contract management for owners' corporations.

Campaign against election malpractices

The Commissioner also revealed that last year, 711 complaints arising from various elections were received, of which 666 were pursuable.

A fresh round of publicity campaigns would be launched to educate candidates, agents and voters of the upcoming Legislative Council elections on the importance of clean elections.

The ICAC will join hands with the Civil Service Bureau to assist government departments in reviewing their declaration of interest systems and to launch a Civil Service Integrity Entrenchment Programme, Mr Wong said.

In view of the increasingly close economic ties with the Mainland, the Commission will organise seminars in conjunction with the Mainland authorities for business people in Hong Kong and the Mainland, and produce corruption prevention guidebooks tailor-made for companies engaged in cross-boundary business.

The ICAC will also help subvented or statutory bodies set up effective systems to guard against misuse of public funds, Mr Wong said.