by Andrew Sagayam
Does not only constitute the illicit transfer of money but can also be in the form of offering favours.
“In today’s world, it does not have to be in monetary terms,” said Daniel Li Ming-Chak, former deputy commissioner of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
corruption and bribery
“Nowadays, corruption has expanded itself to many forms and not confined to the underthe-table money scenario.”
Li spoke to The Malay Mail after attending the four-day 6th International Associations of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) conference, which ended on Sunday.
He said it was now harder for the authorities to find the guilty parties.
“Corruption is not like murder or an accident where investigators will have evidence from the scene to process, and witnesses to interview,” he said.
“In corruption cases, very rarely would those involved come forward as they themselves know they have committed an offence.”
Investigations would thus take longer than expected, sometimes even years.
“It is not uncommon for a case to go on for up to two years or even more,” he said.
“In some cases, the people involved would own up and come forward out of guilt or fear of being caught. At other times, we would stumble upon paperwork or written evidence that can help us bring the guilty parties to justice.”
Li said that at times, a report lodged by someone could just be out of revenge rather than the truth.
“Sometimes, a report could be based on speculation and not a proven incident. A person may have a personal vendetta against someone and the only way they can get to that person is by lodging a report,” he said.
“This will lead to longer periods of investigations as we want to clear the name of the alleged individual.”
He said the focus of investigations would then turn to the person who lodged the false report.
On the transparency of investigations, Li said the authorities have a right to reveal to the public what they need to know but not at the expense of the investigation or the reputation of those being investigated.
“Transparency is vital in corruption cases so people know what the authorities are doing. If it is on procedures or progress of the investigations, then the authorities must come out in the open and tell the public what is going on,” he said.
“But whatever information released must never affect the probe or the reputation of the person being investigated as he or she has not been found guilty yet.”
This article was written by Andrew Sagayam and originally published on mmail
