KEY POINTS:
The Serious Fraud Office should not be abolished, says an international corruption expert.
Indira Carr, professor of law at Surrey University, said it was important to have an independent specialist unit investigating white collar crime.
"With a separate independent unit, people know who to go to. And just as with computer crime, you need a unit with specialists who can detect and enforce, and who know what they are looking for," said Professor Carr, who was here as a guest of Auckland University's business school's newly established Governance Centre, and its department of commercial law.
The SFO is involved in investigations into failed finance companies Bridgecorp and Five Star Consumer Finance, and property investment company Blue Chip.
Under new legislation before Parliament, it faces being disestablished and subsumed into the police as a taskforce located within a new Organised and Financial Crime Agency.
The Serious Fraud Office (Abolition Transitional Provisions) Bill has already passed its first reading and is at present in front of the law and order select committee. Public submissions close on June 20.
Opponents of the bill fear it will dilute the SFO's powers, but the Government says the police already deal extensively with fraud. There was also uncertainty as to whether the bill would make it through Parliament before the Government's July 1 target date for the new agency.
The agency will retain the SFO's power to make production orders, forcing the handing over of data or documents, and examination orders, which compel people to attend a police interview - but officers will need to apply to a judge to obtain an order.
But it loses the SFO's power to override a person's right to remain silent, a move made to ensure the agency's powers complied with the Bill of Rights.
In the UK, most corruption and fraud cases were dealt with by its own Serious Fraud Office, Professor Carr said. The Ministry of Defence also maintained a fraud squad for investigation of any serious fraud and corruption cases within the ministry.
