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Role of anti-graft bureau in focus

"Statistics show that more than 80 percent of Taiwanese fugitives are in hiding in China."

Liao Ran, Transparency International Asia Pacific program coordinator

Foreign experts and government officials involved in anti-corruption efforts urged Taiwan yesterday to ensure the impartiality of a proposed anti-corruption bureau.

"Since 2001, the government has been planning to establish an anti-corruption office under the Ministry of Justice [MOJ]. Various polls have shown that the public support the establishment of such a bureau," Kuan Kao-yueh (管高岳), Director of the MOJ's Department of Government Employee Ethics, said at the 2007 International Anti-Corruption Conference yesterday.

However, Program Coordinator of Transparency International Asia Pacific Liao Ran said the anti-graft office would need more authority to function properly.

"I suggested the formation of a higher level and more independent bureau under the Cabinet or the president," Liao said.

He said Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption, established in 1974, worked well because it was made up of several independent committees headed up by different individuals.

Koh Teck-hin, deputy director of Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), said his bureau, established in 1952, was able to probe both private and public figures because it was answerable only to the country's premier.

"There has been little political interference in CPIB investigations," Koh said.

Liao said 47 countries have anti-corruption offices, but studies showed that the bureaus functioned better in countries that had adopted Anglo-Saxon law, rather than continental law.

"Because prosecutors in countries with Anglo-Saxon law system -- such as Hong Kong -- have no power of judicial investigation, they need a strong and independent bureau to combat corruption," Liao said.

Some reporters questioned the need for a special bureau to combat corruption since the government last year passed an amendment to the Organic Law of Court Organization (法院組織法), which gave the state public prosecutor-general more power to probe the president and other top-level government officials. Kuan responded that while prosecutors serve to investigate corruption after it has been discovered, an anti-graft office would help to prevent and detect corruption.

Liao called for greater cooperation between Taiwan and China on combatting corruption and other crimes.

"Statistics show that more than 80 percent of Taiwanese fugitives are in hiding in China. This fact jeopardizes Taiwan's judicial system," Liao said.

At their annual conference last April, Liao said, APEC member countries had agreed to form a framework to combat corruption and money laundering.

Taiwan could seek to cooperate with China under this framework, Liao said, thereby avoiding the need for potentially tricky negotiations.
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