ACRC, Past Two and a Half Years Dedicated to Realizing Transparent and Fair Society

- The government has been driving robust anti-corruption reforms together with citizens focusing on the five tasks, such as uprooting breach of rules and unfair privileges in people’s lives, e.g., hiring irregularities, and strengthening the protection of public interest whistleblowers -

- As current Anti-Corruption Policy Consultative Council to be expanded and overhauled into one committed to fair society, avenues to improve fairness in our livelihood and the economy to be on the agenda on top of anti-corruption measures -

- Enactment of the Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Public Office to block public officials from seeking private gains to be pushed for -

November 13, 2019

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong), an anti-corruption control tower under the Moon administration, has been pushing ahead with anti-corruption reforms intensively focusing on the following five government tasks to realize a transparent and fair society where evasive tactics and tricks as well as unjust privileges are no longer tolerated: a task to carry out the anti-corruption reform; to correct deceits and privileges in the people’s lives; to reinforce protection of public interest whistleblowers; to rectify unfair practices and an abuse of power; to take the lead in the discussion of issues of anti-corruption and fairness in the international community.

Starting next year, the ACRC will expand and overhaul the current president-presided Anti-Corruption Policy Consultative Council into one dedicated to fair society to discuss measures to improve fairness in the public livelihood and the economy on top of anti-corruption measures. In addition, the ACRC will accelerate its efforts to enact the Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Public Office to ensure public officials’ fair performance of duties, thereby increasing the public confidence in the government and the public sector, while adding about 100 major laws such as the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons and the Hygiene Products Control Act, which are closely related to the public safety and health, to the list of the laws currently covered under the Act on the Protection of Public Interest Whistleblowers so that the blind spots of whistleblower protection can be effectively addressed.

Ⅰ. Anti-Corruption Reform through Government-Citizen Partnership

Above all, the ACRC has put an extra emphasis on pushing anti-corruption reforms through for clean and fair society to make it take root in the public sector and permeate everyday life of citizens.

The ACRC launched the Anti-Corruption Policy Consultative Council under the chairmanship of the President in September, 2017 to bring together the heads of relevant ministries to have more systematic discussions with regard to their respective anti-corruption measures implemented individually.

In April, 2018, the ACRC established the Five-Year Comprehensive Anti-Corruption Plan that embodies the 50 key tasks with which the government and citizens came up by putting their heads together in the meeting of the Public-Private Consultative Council for Transparent Society participated in by people from all walks of life.

Having been in force for more than three years, the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act has taken root as the norm in life of the people in our society. According to the result of the ACRC’s survey of the public perceptions, 8 out of 10 citizens said they became aware that making solicitations or providing entertainment to public officials, which used to be deemed customary practices, are improper acts while 82.2% of the public officials participating in the survey said they have actually experienced less improper solicitations or requests using personal networks.

II. Elimination of Privileges and Fouls in Every Corner of Society

In 2017, the ACRC and other relevant ministries conducted a special joint inspection of employment situations at public institutions across the country in order to uproot employment-related irregularities that leave young job seekers in their 20’s and 30’s with a deep sense of distrust and frustration. As of last year, the T/F on Hiring Irregularities in Public Institutions was launched to carry out exhaustive inspections of recruitment situations in public institutions every year. To date, it has detected 519 hiring irregularities and sternly punished those involved, while weeding out unfairly hired employees. Out of 3,317 victims of such recruitment irregularities, 3,298 (99.4%) were either newly hired or given opportunities to reapply for the jobs.

III. Reinforcement of Public Interest Whistleblower Protection

Public interest whistleblowers’ social positions are protected above all else. Still, some are hesitant to come forward in the detection and disclosure of the wrongdoing they have observed out of anxiety about any chance of suffering reprisals that may ensue following their reports. To protect even these reluctant potential whistleblowers more thoroughly, the Anonymous Reporting System under which a person who wishes to report on wrongdoing but hesitant to come forward for fear of being at risk may submit a report through an attorney the person appoints to represent him/her without revealing his/her own identity was adopted in October 2018. As of July 2019, the Advisory Counsel to support anonymous reporting was put in place in the ACRC and the costs incurred in the course of legal consulting and reporting are provided by the ACRC using its budget to mitigate the financial burden on whistleblowers.

In addition, the ACRC also adopted the Punitive Damages System whereby it can impose monetary penalties up to three times as much as the amount of loss suffered by a public interest whistleblower in the case where anyone takes discriminatory or disadvantageous measures on grounds of his/her reporting.

IV. Taking the Lead in Global Discussion of Anti-Corruption & Fairness

As a pan-governmental control tower driving anti-corruption reforms and fair society initiatives of the Moon administration, reflecting aspirations of the people for a ‘more transparent and fairer society,’ the ACRC will concentrate its capacity on the following tasks with a stronger drive:

First of all, by expanding and overhauling the existing Anti-Corruption Policy Consultative Council into one dedicated to a fair society to come up to higher standards of fairness upheld by the people in our society, the ACRC plans to solidify the government’s anti-corruption will and to have in-depth discussions with other related ministries and agencies about avenues to improve fairness in the livelihood of the people and the economy, along with anti-corruption measures.

Secondly, the ACRC will prevent an abuse of power/influence through legislating the prohibition against improper solicitations by public officials in the private sector and also actively push for the enactment of the Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Public Office in a bid to prevent and control the conflict-of-interest situations among public officials that may hamper their fair performance of duties. Through these efforts, the ACRC plans to establish a comprehensive legal framework spanning all areas of anti-corruption, ranging from prevention to detection to follow-up management.

Thirdly, the ACRC will also push ahead with the revision of the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act according to which those who report on violations of about 100 major laws closely related to the people’s livelihood and safety in addition to the 284 laws currently covered by the Act, including the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons and the Hygiene Products Control Act, will be protected as well. Once revised, the scope of protection for public interest reporters is expected to be further expanded and those reporting acts of ghostwriting self-introduction letters for college prep students by private consulting institutes for college admissions, acts of selling wet towels and disposables contravening the standards of ingredients, and so forth will be deemed public interest reporters, thus being subject to the protection under the amended Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act.

On top of these, the ACRC will actively resolve citizens’ grievances by identifying and overhauling unfair guidelines leaving room for an abuse of power, which are often found in the public sector, such as those shifting the costs that should be borne by public institutions onto citizens or adding unreasonable conditions upon issuance of permissions of various kinds, etc.