Hong Kong's graft watchdog Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) had recorded 3, 450 corruption reports in 2009, up slightly two percent from a year earlier, of which 73 percent were pursuable and 69 percent non-anonymous, according to the ICAC's 2009 report released on Wednesday.

Tabling ICAC's 2009 Annual Report at the city's Legislative Council, Advisory Committee on Corruption member and lawmaker Chan Kam-lam said various indicators continued to evidence the ICAC's effectiveness, the public's disdain for corruption and their confidence in ICAC's work.

Chan said international surveys continued to consider Hong Kong among the world's cleanest places, bearing testimony to the success of the holistic anti-graft strategy of the ICAC which entered into its 35th year of service to the community in 2009.

The 2009 Annual Report also showed Hong Kong's private sector complaints accounted for 63 percent of the total corruption reports, with the city's government departments and public bodies respectively taking up 31 percent and 6 percent. Case-based conviction rate was 85 percent.

ICAC Commissioner Timothy Tong said in his review in the annual report that the Hong Kong community and the ICAC had done well together to weather the most serious financial turmoil the world had known in decades.

"The fact that there were no significant change in the number of overall reports of corruption received can be partly attributed to a far greater level of public vigilance than was evident during the Asian financial crisis in 1997," he said.

"Yet, whatever the state of the economy and public sentiment is, the Commission will always be on the alert in order to keep corruption under tight control," Tong said.

On the law enforcement front, Tong said the ICAC was committed to vigorously seeking full compliance with the Interception of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance (ICSO) when investigating cases of corruption and related crimes.

International collaboration with overseas law enforcement agencies and cross-boundary liaison with China's Mainland and Macao authorities in the fight against corruption continued to sit high on ICAC's action list, said the report.

Good progress had also been made with its Mainland and Macao counterparts in various areas of co-operation relating to corruption prevention and education.

In light of the growing economic and social interaction between Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macao, the ICAC had been discussing with its counterparts the establishment of a standing co-operation mechanism to provide cross-boundary businesses with improved corruption prevention services, according to the report.

In 2009, Tong also led ICAC's first delegation to China's Taiwan upon the invitation of its justice authorities to exchange views on issues of common interest such as integrity management, promotion of business ethics and moral education.