The interim Chairman of the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC), Mr. Thomas Eluh when clarifying the reporting process of the Commission, said that although it may be a lengthy process, it is necessary to ensure that the cases handled will be thoroughly screened to determine whether they are legitimate cases. He stated that the Complaints Handling process has 4 stages and reporting will be done at one central point. “Unlike the Ombudsmen Commission (OC), the ICAC will function similarly to the Police in terms of making arrests and pressing charges and should citizens wish to report a matter, they will be ready to assist.” He added that complaints can be registered at only one central location and can come in forms of emails, letters or made in person. The first step in the process would be to register a complaint with the Registry Clerk and they will be given an identification number. This is to ensure that these ID Numbers are organized, and cases are not registered twice. “Sometimes with the law, people tend to register cases once or twice. This is to ensure we don’t have cases registered twice.” Once this is done, the next step would be the assessment of the severity of the case to find out and determine whether the case is legitimate, making sure that there is no conflict of interest. Then it will proceed to preliminary investigation to find reasonable basis to continue, such as relevant evidence and when everything is finally done, then the proper investigation commences. Once a case is completed, it then goes through a Pre-Trial Assessment Panel to ensure complete transparency in the processes. If a case fails however, then it goes to the Fail Prosecution Panel to identify what had gone wrong. Eluh said it’s quite tough the process, but this is to ensure 100% transparency in the Commission.