Customized Anti-Corruption Policy Suited to the Newly Launched 7th Local Self-Governing Bodies to Be Pushed for

ACRC held ‘the Conference of Audit and Inspection Officials from Cities/Provinces and Offices of Education’ on June 19 to root out deeply-entrenched regional cartel corruption

June 18, 2018

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

As the 7th popularly elected local self-governing bodies were launched, tailored anti-corruption policy measures are slated to be implemented with a view to eradicating regional cartel corruption.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) held the Conference of Audit and Inspection Officials from Cities/Provinces and Offices of Education on June 19 to get rid of chronic regional corruption caused by collusion between influential figures within the region and public officials based on cronyism and favoritism, etc. During the conference, participants had intensive discussions on such issues as ways to eradicate hiring irregularities and regional cartel corruption resulting from back-scratching ties between the public and private sector and how to stabilize the implementation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, which was newly revised to come into force on April 17.

According to the Korea Manifesto Center, among the top ten agendas selected by voters in the June 13 nationwide local elections, ‘the eradication of corruption’ has been selected as the top priority agenda.

For the past 23-year period since the era of local self-government elected by popular vote first began, the number of the heads of local governments who have been indicted on charges of violation of the election law and bribery amounts to a whopping 364. Moreover, corrupt acts committed by public officials in the field of personnel affairs, guidance/regulation, construction management, license/permission, contract, subsidy, and management of academic affairs, etc. have been continuously exposed, indicating that there needs to be strong measures to contain cartel corruption within regions and bolster integrity and transparency in the local administrative system.

In accordance with the results of the analysis on the current status of corrupt public officials by type of agency released by the ACRC, the rate of corrupt public officials at both local governments and offices of education has appeared to be steadily high in 2016 and 2017. As for the score of comprehensive integrity, the local governments and offices of education have continuously performed worse than the overall public agencies.

[Changes in the Score of Comprehensive Integrity] (Unit : points)

※ In this graphic data, the scores for local governments have been arrived at by taking the average of the scores for upper level local governments and those for lower level local governments.

The ACRC collected various opinions of the public regarding ‘ways to establish clean and transparent local self-governing systems’ through the People’s Idea Box from June 1 to 15. As a result, a variety of opinions have been presented, which includes: the introduction of ‘One strike, you’re out’ policy applicable to public officials committing bribery and other corruption offences; prohibition of interference by the agency’s head in personnel affairs such as employment and promotion, etc.; and transparent disclosure of information pertaining to local administration.

Based on such opinions gathered through the People’s Idea Box, the ACRC plans to push for anti-corruption policies to root out cartel corruption within regions, thereby improving the overall integrity of local governments.

First of all, this year, the ACRC will focus on making efforts to improve institutions with the aim to increase the level of integrity in the field of local government budget and personnel management, including through the management of contributions for the consultative council of local government administration and the reinforcement of the responsibility of civil servants at local self-governing agencies to discharge their duties with integrity and transparency. Along with this effort, the ACRC will assess the performances of tasks for institutional improvement it has recommended to local governments, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security and the Ministry of Education for the past five years with respect to the operation of personnel affairs and budget, and various kinds of licensing matters.

Second, the ACRC will bolster the inspection of the hiring system at local public corporations, etc. with a view to stamping out hiring irregularities, which are representative cases of regional cartel corruption resulting from collusive ties between influential figures in the region and public servants. According to the results of the investigations into public officials implicated in job-related corruption cases exposed via the special inspection jointly conducted by different ministries at the end of last year, such measures as excluding the public officials concerned from discharging duties and imposing disciplinary actions, etc. will be taken, and as for those illicitly hired, continuous inspections will be carried out with regards to whether those illicitly hired have been dismissed, etc. On top of this, institutional improvement measures will be also adopted for constant supervision of hiring procedures by requiring audit and inspection officials to be present throughout the entire hiring process and having both the human resources division and the audit & inspection division at the local public corporations, etc. keep the s pertaining to employee recruitment.

Third, the ACRC will strengthen its inspection on whether local governments have incorporated the newly inserted or supplemented provisions, especially the provisions regarding prevention of conflicts of interest and prohibition of improper solicitations made by public officials to civilians, of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, which was revised to be effective from April 17, into their own Code of Conduct and have implemented them.

Fourth, the ACRC will put up the integrity map showing the results of the integrity assessment in a panoptic manner on its website, and will also make public violations of the Anti-Graft Act, results of measures taken and statistical data on corruption cases. In so doing, the ACRC will local governments to establish more transparent and accountable administration.

During the Conference of Audit and Inspection Officials from Cities/Provinces and Offices of Education convened on June 19, the ACRC explained major anti-corruption policies for improving integrity and transparency in the administration of the local governments and education offices, including the aforementioned as the gist of such policies, and called for active cooperation and support from cities/provinces and education offices.

“Strong anti-corruption will of the newly established 7th local self-governing bodies that are elected by popular vote is positively necessary for enhancing integrity and transparency in local governments” said the Chairperson of the ACRC Pak Un Jong, calling on audit and inspection officials from cities/provinces and education offices “to make concerted efforts to dispel corruption in accordance with aspirations of the people.”