ACRC provides ‘Integrity consulting’ to public agencies with low levels of integrity

‘Integrity Mentoring’ provided to low-performing agencies for diagnosing their respective anti-corruption capacities and co-creating improvement measures, thereby establishing a plan to put integrity into action

March 8, 2019

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

An ‘integrity mentoring’ service started to be offered by high-performing public agencies with a view to accurately diagnosing anti-corruption capacities of lower-ranking public agencies and co-creating improvement measures.

From March 8, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) started integrity consulting program for 24 public agencies, including the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Gyeongju City that have requested to receive in-depth diagnoses along with solutions pertaining to their respective corruption-prone areas.

Integrity consulting program is a representative policy measure promoted by the ACRC with the aim of improving integrity levels of various public agencies by assisting them in enhancing anti-corruption and integrity capabilities with a consulting service customized to each public agency based on scientific assessments of their work procedures in corruption-prone areas, organizational culture and customary practices, etc.

Since 2006, the ACRC has been providing the integrity consulting service for public agencies through which it assesses obstacles hindering integrity improvement in public agencies concerned and suggests customized solutions.

With a change in the way of providing the service last year, the consulting service started to be offered as a group consulting service. That is, public agencies with similar integrity levels can form a group and high-performing agencies can draw up measures to improve integrity in low-performing agencies in conjunction with the ACRC, thus allowing far more public agencies to be able to receive the service.

After the introduction of the group consulting service, it was assessed that the increased mutual cooperation between the ACRC and high-performing public agencies has resulted in boosting participation of agencies subject to the consulting service.

Public agencies wishing to receive the mentoring service, namely, ‘the mentee’, may voluntarily constitute a group by taking account of their regions or agency types, designate a public agency with higher level of integrity as their ‘mentor’ and submit a request for mentoring.

Through this joint integrity consulting service, which is provided on a group-by-group basis, public agencies receiving the service are now able to establish measures customized to their respective circumstances based on interactive learning and discussions regarding anti-corruption initiatives, including the know-how to enhance their integrity levels.

In particular, the ACRC plans to diagnose the underlying problems in corruption-prone areas of each agency this year by factoring in regional characteristics (e.g. local corruption, etc.) and implement solutions altogether, as well as providing the group consulting service for public agencies.

The ACRC has been offering the service for a total of 122 public agencies from 2006 to 2018. This year, it has received requests for the service from 82 public agencies out of which it selected 10 mentors and 24 mentees to be formed into 10 groups, assessed anti-corruption capabilities of each public agency and devised customized improvement measures in order to come up with a feasible plan for putting integrity into action.

The director general of the Anti-Corruption Bureau at the ACRC, Lim Yoon-ju, said that “out of 21 public agencies that received the integrity consulting service over the last year, 13 agencies saw improvements in their grade/tier in the Integrity Assessment, and particularly 4 agencies rose by three notches from 5th to 2nd grade/tier. If we effectively improve integrity levels of various public agencies through this interactive consulting program among mentors and mentees and spread successful cases throughout the public sector as a whole, we will be able to raise the general level of integrity in the officialdom.”