December 1, 2017

As December 9th marked the UN’s World Anti-Corruption Day, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) designated the period from 1st to 15th December as ‘anti-corruption weeks’ and took the lead in spreading a culture of integrity throughout the society by holding a number of anti-corruption events such as anti-corruption policy consultative council, anti-corruption initiative contest, a nationwide integrity campaign, etc. during the cited period.

The United Nations has designated December 9th as the World Anti-Corruption Day to commemorate the signing ceremony for the United Nations Convention against Corruption on December 9th, 2003 in Merida, Mexico.

The ACRC ran off various events in partnership with relevant agencies including foreign governments, public institutions and civil societies during the anti-corruption weeks.

On December 8th, awards ceremony was held for the anti-corruption contents contest in which the public participated by submitting various integrity-related contents including memoirs, book report, UCC, webtoons, lectures, etc., and on 11th to 15th December, regional-level integrity campaigns were run off under the theme ‘Integrity is a culture. Now the people are auditors’ in major cities across the nation such as Seoul and Pusan, etc.

On December 12th, ‘public institutions’ anti-corruption initiative contest’ participated by approximately 10 public institutions was held in order to discover and spread outstanding anti-corruption initiatives that have been individually implemented at institutions of various levels.

During the anti-corruption weeks, the ACRC announced its accomplishments of the major anti-corruption projects carried out intensively during this year.

The ACRC announced ‘the result of 2017 integrity assessment’ for 573 public institutions on 6th and its achievement of operating ‘intensive reporting period on government subsidy fraud and private school corruption’ for the last three months on 15th.

Furthermore, before and after the anti-corruption weeks, the ACRC promoted major contents pertaining to the Act on the Protection of Public Whistleblower revised in October (to be effective on May 1, 2018) by sending out pertinent card news and videos, etc.

On the other hand, on December 5th, in order to promote the ACRC’s anti-corruption achievements internationally as well as domestically, the ACRC took part in Fair Player Club Seminar for Compliance and Business Ethics to introduce Korea’s anti-corruption policies including Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, and on December 7th, the ACRC attended the Anti-Corruption Compliance Asia Pacific Summit 2017 held in Hong Kong on behalf of the Korean government to introduce Korean government’s anti-corruption policies and achievements.

On top of it, the ACRC organized an ‘open forum for improving customary practices of rebate in the medical sector’ (Dec. 1), co-hosted a ‘policy discussion forum for business ethics and transparency of local governments’ with Korean Network on Anti-Corruption & Transparency (Dec. 11), held an ‘integrity cluster policy workshop’ (Dec. 4) and shared the new administration’s anti-corruption policy direction with public agencies and auditors in the private sector’ (Dec. 7) with a view to carrying out in-depth discussions on anti-corruption policy tasks.

The ACRC held various events in which the public could participate and announced major anti-corruption policy achievements of the new administration at home and abroad during the anti-corruption weeks so that ordinary citizens can be provided with opportunities to be more familiar with ‘integrity’. The ACRC will continue to spare no efforts to make a culture of integrity take a firm root in Korean society in the years to come.