In an interview with the Mercury's Weekender magazine, Mr Cripps said it was a matter of continuing disappointment for him that long and exhaustive ICAC investigations had led to so few prosecutions for corrupt conduct.

His 2008 investigation into Wollongong City Council recommended charges be considered against 11 people for up to 139 offences, but just 21 charges were laid against three people.

Mr Cripps said prosecutors should be more willing to charge people with the common law offence of misconduct in public office, as it would make prosecutions easier.

He said that former Australian chief justice Anthony Mason had laid down the elements of this offence while sitting on Hong Kong's appeals court.

"You can't not charge people with misconduct in public office, just because the particular conduct is in itself not a crime," Mr Cripps said.

"They only have to follow [Mason's] decision, you know, and they could get most of these buggers."

He was pleased disgraced former NSW minister Eddie Obeid was charged with misconduct in public office, over his dealings on his family's Circular Quay cafes.

A NSW parliamentary committee is inquiring into prosecutions from ICAC, and whether legal changes could affect the prosecutions that arise.

Many submissions address the failure to prosecute large numbers of cases. In his, Mr Cripps makes the case that the offence of misconduct in public office could be the way to move forward.

Looking back on Wollongong, Mr Cripps is still amused that former council chief executive Rod Oxley - who ICAC found had created an environment where corruption flourished, but made no recommendation that charges be considered - sent him a copy of his book Named and Shamed.

Mr Cripps is yet to open it.

"He sent me a copy. I thought, I'm not going to read this," he recalled.

"I thought if he was making a formal submission, saying notwithstanding what ICAC did, they got it wrong, I'd have a look at that. But I was buggered if I was going to read a book about it," Mr Cripps said.