‘Corruption and public interest violation reporting, whistleblower protection and reward’, now all possible through the online one-stop service

Corruption & Public Interest Violation Reporting Center Website (www.1398.acrc.go.kr) has been renewed as Clean Portal (www.clean.go.kr), Types of reports automatically recommended by analyzing contents of reports, and security tightened up with two-factor reporter authentication

March 18, 2019

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

It is now possible for the people to submit ‘corruption and public interest violation reports’ and ‘requests for protection and rewards’ all at once through the internet, as the previous Corruption and Public Interest Violation Reporting Center website (www.1398.acrc.go.kr) has been renewed as ‘Clean Portal’ (www.clean.go.kr). In addition, security for the reporter authentication process has been more tightened up with two-factor authentication function newly added, which makes reporters feel more relieved when reporting corruption and public interest violations.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) has built and launched Clean Portal (www.clean.go.kr) as part of its first-phase project to establish the national integrity e-system for the people to more easily and conveniently submit corruption and public interest violation reports and access protection and reward services.

The Corruption and Public Interest Violation Reporting Center previously run by the ACRC required reporters to choose one of the five types of corruption (e.g. corruption, public interest violation, improper solicitation, code of conduct violation, etc.) when they submit a report, thus causing a lot of inconveniences to people without much knowledge about it. The Clean Portal that has been newly open to the public has reinforced its customized services suited to reporters so that anyone can easily file a report on corruption and public interest violations, even if they do not know what types of corruption they are reporting.

For example, in the case where a reporter uses a simple reporting system, the Clean Portal automatically recommends a corruption type by analyzing the contents of the report, etc. and provides a guide to the reporter regarding the protection and rewards system related to the corruption reports submitted.

Furthermore, more than 1,000 cases of reports have been fabricated based on the judicial precedents and previous cases of deliberation and decisions accumulated by the ACRC and newly made public via the Clean Portal for reporters to refer to those cases when filling in their reporting forms.

Along with this, the ACRC now receives requests for protection and reward from reporters via the Clean Portal, providing a one-stop service to reporters ranging from the submission of corruption and public interest reports to whistleblower protection and rewards.

In particular, by providing a reporter with different authentication options, such as simple authentication (single-factor authentication) and two-factor authentication requiring both a certificate of authentication and password, the confidentiality of personal information of a reporter has been more strengthened and the reporter can feel more safe when he/she submits a report via the Portal.

A Director for the Inspection Planning Division of the ACRC said, “The renewal of the previous website of Corruption and Public Interest Violation Reporting Center (www.1398.acrc.go.kr) as Clean Portal has enabled the public to report corruption and request protection and rewards on a one-stop basis in a more convenient manner through the internet. This year, the ACRC plans to push for the second phase project to establish the integrity e-system in order to expand the use of Clean Portal in public institutions, so that people can utilize the reporting, protection and reward services more conveniently than before.”