Korea shares its experience in carrying out "Corruption Risk Assessment" with Myanmar

ACRC-UNDP discussed ways to introduce "Corruption Risk Assessment" to Myanmar on February 28 with high-ranking government officials of Myanmar

February 28, 2018

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

Korea's "Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA)" that discovers and eliminates corruption risk factors from the phase of drawing up a bill is expected to be introduced to Myanmar.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) of Korea and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) hosted a remote video seminar to introduce Korea's CRA to high-ranking government officials of Myanmar on February 28.

The CRA that systematically analyzes corruption risk factors from the stage of developing a bill for legislation to head off the likelihood of occurrence of corruption was introduced in Korea in 2006. Central administrative departments must receive the corruption risk assessment by the ACRC without fail when enacting or revising laws, presidential decrees, or departmental ordinances under their jurisdiction.

ACRC Chairperson Pak Un Jong, Chairman Aung Kyi of the Anti-Corruptison Commission of Myanmar, Director Balazs Horvath of UNDP Seoul Policy Centre, and Director Peter Batchelor of UNDP Myanmar Office attended the seminar to discuss the ways to successfully introduce the CRA to Myanmar.

The ACRC has actively offered technical support for sharing of Korea's major anti-corruption policies with developing countries. As a result, the CRA was introduced to Indonesia in 2009 and to Mongolia in 2016.

This year, a project of sharing the experience of implementing the CRA will be carried out with countries that are interested in adopting the system, including Myanmar and Kosovo.

Following the seminar, the ACRC will hold a CRA workshop for the Anti-Corruption Commission of Myanmar and relevant organizations in May in Sejong City in Korea, to continue its support for the successful introduction of the CRA to Myanmar.

Hyungsok Kwak, director general of the ACRC's Planning & Coordination Office, said, "we expect that the sharing of Korea’s anti-corruption policies will help improve the anti-corruption systems of our partner countries and ultimately contribute to enhancing integrity in those countries."

Director Balazs Horvath of the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre said, “CRA is an effective and verified policy tool that finds out and eliminates corruption risk factors in the laws and institutions of the public administrative sector”.

The seminar was hosted as part of the "Development Solutions Partnerships" through which the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre shares Korea's development experiences and outstanding policies through UNDP's global network. The ACRC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on anti-corruption collaboration with the UNDP in December 2015, and this partnership led a pilot project of introducing Korea's "Anti-Corruption Initiative Assessment" system to Vietnam to success.

* Anti-Corruption Initiative Assessment is a system of evaluating the relevance and effectiveness of anti-corruption and integrity policies implemented by public institutions, for the purpose of inducing voluntary anti-corruption efforts of public institutions

As part of the project, the first pilot "Provincial Anti-Corruption Assessment" was carried out on the People's Committee of 63 provinces in Vietnam in 2016, and the Vietnamese government plans to conduct the second pilot assessment this year.