November 21, 2017

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) transferred or sent 147 cases out of 216 cases related to fraudulent receipt of the national basic livelihood security benefits that have been reported to the Center for Reporting Public Subsidy Fraud for the past four years to the investigative and supervisory agency, and as a result, 1.254 billion won has been recovered to the national treasury.

Those phony beneficiaries fraudulently received basic livelihood security subsidy by receiving monthly wages in cash or under borrowed names while concealing the fact that they were employed or by falsely reporting the amount of their income and property.

Examples of fraudulent receipt of basic livelihood security subsidy are as follows: (a) person A illegally received the subsidy of 35.4 million won by hiding the fact that he earned interest income amounting to 100 million won in total after lending private loans to customers from 2013 to 2015; (b) person B unlawfully received the subsidy of 29.9 million won by maintaining his property worth approximately 100 million won in the name of his mother and younger sister for five years from 2011 to 2016 and submitting a false real estate lease agreement form after lowering the amount of security deposit, etc. in order to meet the criteria for the application for receipt of basic livelihood security subsidy; and (c) person C unjustly received the subsidy of 12.4 million won by concealing his earnings through receiving his monthly wages in cash directly from his company selling construction materials every month for two years since 2015.

They were all held accountable for their crafty acts of corruption and punished after all thanks to corruption reporters, and the ACRC is now investigating other dozens of cases of public subsidy fraud reported.

The ACRC has been continuously uncovering cases of public subsidy fraud so as to prevent the leakage of public funds caused by such phony beneficiaries of basic living grants the purpose of which is to ensure the minimum standard of living for the needy individuals. In particular, the ACRC received a number of reports on government subsidy fraud and private school corruption for the intensive reporting period from Sep. 1 to Nov. 30, 2017 and exposed cases of corruption related thereto.

Anyone can report corruption involving illicit receipt of government subsidy, such as basic livelihood security benefits, to the ACRC anytime via visit to the ACRC, mail, fax, internet or free smart-phone applications, etc. Corruption reporters’ identity and confidentiality will be thoroughly protected pursuant to the law and the reporters may receive compensation of up to 3 billion won after going through deliberation.