“ACRC provides W 283.74 Million in Rewards to Corruption and Public Interest Violation Reporters”

Corruption and public interest violation reports recovered or saved W 2,053.41 million for state and public institutions

August 24, 2017

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

For the fifth time this year, monetary rewards were provided to corruption and public interest violation reporters. A total of W 283.74 million was rewarded to 42 reporters. As a result of the reports, state and public institutions recovered or saved as much as W 2,053.41 million*.

* W 1,835.83 million was recovered or saved from corruption reports and W 217.58 million from public interest violation reports.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) announced on August 24th that at a general assembly meeting held on August 7th, it decided to pay W 243.775 million in monetary rewards to 25 corruption reporters and W 39.965 million to 17 public interest violation reporters.

Examples of the rewards paid to corruption whistleblowers include: (a) W 61.763 million to a person who reported an agricultural cooperative that installed a used-product when constructing a facility funded by a subsidy, and submitted a false report stating it installed a new product; (b) W 63.056 million to a reporter who blown the whistle on a company that sold a facility the company had built using a subsidy, violating the duty of maintaining and operating the facility for two years; and (c) W 14.88 million to a whistleblower who revealed a case where a social welfare facility, which received a subsidy for its operation, employed a worker and put him on another facility not covered by the subsidy.

Rewards paid to public interest whistleblowers include: (a) W 15.897 to a person who blown the whistle on a company that reported the transaction price of a land it bought lower than the actual transaction price; (b) W 2.688 million to a reporter who reported an insurance company that collected insurance subscribers through insurance solicitors of other insurance company; and (c) W1.936 million to a whistleblower who reported a company that illegally disposed of dead pigs, burying the fallen animals on a farm.

An official from the ACRC said, “As corruptions and public interest violations are committed in more secretive and sophisticated way as in the case of false claims for various subsidies and aids and false reports of real estate transaction price, detecting them is not easy. So the ACRC will be more active in offering rewards to corruption and public interest violation whistleblowers to further promote corruption and public interest violation whistleblowing.”