229 corruption risks to be removed from 1,404 enactment and amendment bills

Anti-Corruption Training Institute begins to run its anti-corruption training programs catered for local councils first in Yeongdeungpo-gu Council on October 16

November 15, 2018

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

This year, 229 corruption risks were found in 1,404 enactment and amendment bills, and recommendations for improvement were issued on them, which included imposing heavier administrative sanctions against incineration facilities for illegally discharging dioxins, and enhancing transparency and fairness in the establishment and decision-making procedure of water purifier quality review committees.

From January to the end of October this year, ACRC conducted Corruption Risk Assesment (CRA) on 1,404 enactment and amendment bills of central administrative agencies, and recommended improvements on 229 corruption causing factors to the concerned agencies.

CRA, conducted by ACRC since 2006, is s part of government legislative procedure that must be carried out when enacting or amending laws. This corruption-control instrument systematically analyzes and assesses corruption-causing factors in laws and regulations from their drafting stage, and the assessment result is used to recommend the concerned agencies to remove such risks.

This year, recommendations were issued in the following areas: clarifying discretionary regulations related to public health and safety (51 cases, 22.3%), securing predictability of administrative procedures (46 cases, 20.1%), improving transparency and fairness in committees related to people’s daily life (31 cases, 13.5%), rationalizing regulations on sanctions against corruption (30 cases, 13.1%).

<Recommendations by assessment criteria>

For example, a bill of the Ministry of Environment stipulates that in a case where a suspension order is to be issued on an incineration facility that released dioxins over accepted limits, if suspension is likely to cause inconveniences for residents, penalty surcharges could be imposed instead of a suspension order.

This may cause corruption since the business, expecting economic losses due to suspension, could be tempted to make improper solicitation, hoping to pay penalty surcharges only and continue to operate.

If applied to areas directly related to public health and safety, the bill could seriously damage public interests, causing a serious harm to public health and environment.

For this reason, ACRC recommended the Ministry of Environment to add corruption prevention tools in the bill, including by removing the provision that allows for the replacement of suspension orders with penalty surcharges or by limiting the number of imposition of penalty surcharges. The MOE accepted the recommendation and will proceed with legislation procedure after considering and reviewing comprehensive measures for improvement.

Director General for Anti-corruption Bureau of ACRC said, “ACRC actively discovers and improves corruption-causing factors hidden in laws and regulations which affect people’s everyday life. ACRC will step up efforts to improve legislations that can be felt by citizens, ultimately enhancing transparency and fairness in public administration.”

□ Assessment objectives

○ There is a limit to preventing corruption in systematically corruption-prone areas through passive corruption control that focuses on discovering and punishing individual cases.

○ A preventive corruption-control tool is required to systematically analyze and remove or improve corruption-causing factors in laws and regulations from the enactment stage.

□ Assessment target and handling period

○ When they enact or revise their acts, presidential decrees, and ordinances, central administrative agencies request the ACRC to conduct the Corruption Risk Assessment after preparing assessment materials.

※ Provisions on organization or establishment of administrative institutions, which have little possibility of causing corruption, are exempted from the target of assessment.

○ After receiving an assessment request, the ACRC shall complete the assessment within the due date (generally 40 days) of pre-announcement of legislation and notify the results to the competent agencies.

□ Statistics

○ Statistics of new and revised acts received and assessed (Recent 3 years)

(Unit: case)

* Multiple improvement recommendations can be presented for one act.