“ACRC Clarifies its Stance on 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International”

On the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published by the Transparency International (TI), Korea ranked 45th out of 180 countries and territories with a score of 57 on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Korea edged up three points and went up by six positions compared to the previous year, scoring an all-time high of 57 points.

※ Korea ranked 30th out of 36 OECD member countries in this year’s index, taking a place ahead of Italy, Greece and Turkey, etc.

The Korean government’s significant efforts put into eradicating corruption based on its strong anti-corruption will since the launch of a new Administration, including ▲ the establishment and operation of the president-presided Anti-Corruption Policy Consultative Council jointly attended by heads of relevant ministries and the launch of the Private-Public Consultative Council for Transparency Society, which is a governance system based on the private-public partnership, ▲the formulation and release of the Five-Year Anti-Corruption Master Plan, and ▲ the active response to tackle pending issues of corruption, such as hiring irregularities, etc. have had a positive impact on the rating of the perceived level of corruption in Korea.

As a result, Korea was able to receive positive feedbacks from the international community as to its anti-corruption policy environment.

√ Asian Intelligence Review by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) (Mar. 28, 2018)

“The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) has been effective at reducing the practice of unlawful solicitations at lower and middle-levels. It has drawn up and enforced codes of conduct for officials and is in the process of strengthening the punishment and disciplinary measures for those who are found guilty of offenses. The ACRC is also having a positive impact on reducing the problem of leakage of public funds, such as welfare subsidies.”

√ Bertelsmann Foundation (BF) (Oct. 10, 2018)

“Another positive development is that the Kim Young-ran Act, known as the anti-graft law (improper solicitation and graft act), that came into effect in September 2016 … and might lead to a deeper cultural change of the gift-giving culture in Korea. … In the surveys, nearly nine out of ten citizens responded that the law was effective, about 53 percent said that the amount of requests for job-related favors has declined, while 55.4 percent responded that their exchanges of gifts have been reduced.”

√ In the 2017 Index of Public Integrity published by the European Research Center for Anti-Corruption and State-Building (ERCAS), Korea ranked 23rd out of 109 countries with a score of 8.09 points on the scale of 1 to 10.

* For detailed information, please refer to the attachment 4.

However, grand corruption involving the judiciary and political leaders at high levels of power, etc. and corruption closely associated with the livelihood of people including private preschool irregularities that occurred during the review period somewhat negatively affected both national and international perceptions of corruption in Korea.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) will continue to push for the following strategic tasks, aiming to make it into the top 20 countries with high levels of transparency by 2022.

First of all, the ACRC will fundamentally improve corruption-prone areas by promoting coherent anti-corruption policies at the pan-government level through active operation of the Anti-Corruption Policy Consultative Council and continuous management of the Five-Year Anti-Corruption Master Plan, etc., while achieving policy outcomes that can strike a chord with the vast majority of people.

To this end, the ACRC will spare no efforts to beef up the ethical foundation of the public sector by pushing for the legislation of the systems for the prevention of conflicts of interest and improper solicitations to the private sector and reinforcing the legally-binding force of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act (i.e. the anti-graft Act) in a bid to stave off power-related grand corruption, while supplementing relevant institutions to strengthen the protection system for corruption and public interest reporters in order to make sure that offenders of corruption do not get away with their crimes.

In addition, the ACRC will focus its policy capacity on fundamentally addressing unreasonable irregularities and corruption deeply entrenched in day-to-day lives of people that cause the public to feel deprived due to social and economic privileges unfairly given, and also concentrate its efforts on eradicating regional cartel corruption involving collusion among powerful figures, thereby expanding fruits of anti-corruption performance that match up to people’s expectations and can be felt in our daily lives.

With a view to addressing corrupt practices in the private sector pointed out as a corruption-prone area, the ACRC will encourage companies in the private sector to exert voluntary anti-corruption efforts by providing a systematic diagnosis of the integrity level by sectors of industry, while seeking ways to extend multilateral support to companies for the establishment of the ethical business management system through increasing integrity training courses for business leaders and holding contests for best practices of ethical management, etc.

The ACRC will draw up more effective policies and secure sustainable driving forces in fighting against corruption based on the participation from the public by facilitating the engagement of people from all walks of life, including businesspeople and civil society representatives in the formulation and enforcement process of anti-corruption policies through the regionally expanded Private-Public Consultative Council for Transparent Society, a governance system based on private-public partnership.

On top of this, the ACRC will increase integrity awareness in Korean society as a whole through running integrity education programs for the future generation and the Anti-Corruption Week together with people during which the ‘Public Interest Whistleblowing Day’ (Dec. 9th) commemoration ceremony is held, while improving the underestimated national image of Korea by promoting the government’s anti-corruption policies and achievements to international experts in rating organizations and businesspeople at home and abroad, etc. in a systematic way.

Last but not least, the ACRC will play a leading role in the international anti-corruption rounds of the UN, OECD and G20, etc., and taking the IACC to be held in June 2020 in Korea as momentum, the ACRC will take the lead in anti-corruption initiatives in the international community.

※ International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC): Organized by the Transparency International as the world’s largest premier global forum in the field of anti-corruption for bringing together heads of state, civil society, the private sector and more, the IACC provides a venue for international cooperation and exchanges of experiences and information among stakeholders in the anti-corruption field (held every two years).

The ACRC will continue to make full commitments to spreading integrity awareness and anti-corruption culture throughout Korean society as a whole with support from citizens as well as the relevant ministries in order to further improve the CPI in the years to come.