[Best Anti-Corruption Policies]

Let's create a culture of proper budget spending together with residents!

- South Chungcheng Province makes it mandatory for subsidy program operators to receive education on prevention of fraudulent receipt of subsidies, and also operates “resident watchdog for proper budget spending” -

April 10, 2020

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

In line with the government's stepped-up effort to curb public subsidy frauds, South Chungcheong Province has been strengthening transparency in local financial management with provincial residents through education and public relations activities to prevent governmen subsidy frauds.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) has been discovering and spreading best practices by agency and sector so that public and private sectors can use them to establish and promote integrity policies.

This time, South Chungcheong Province, which received the first grade last year in the Anti-Corruption Initiative Assessment (AIA) that evaluates the integrity efforts of public institutions, an improvement by four grades compared to 2018, was selected as an excellent institution.

In order to fundamentally block subsidy frauds, South Chungcheong Province is providing preventive education to subsidy program operators and creating together with the residents a culture of spending the budget properly. It is also strengthening audits of apartment houses to check the management status and prevent the occurrence of irregularities.

(Extermination of subsidy frauds) To prevent leakage of local subsidies, South Chungcheong Province is actively promoting education and promotional activities to prevent any fradulent receipt of subsidies.

First of all, it has expanded the scope of education to private businesses as well as civil servants.

South Chungcheong Province provided education to persons in charge of subsidized programs in cities and counties in South Chuncheng Province on the overall subsidy operation, including subsidy payments, and also trained private subsidy program operators on the accounting control system and settlement of accounts regarding subsidies, cases of subsidy frauds, and sanctions against subsidy program operators in case of fraudulent receipt of subsidies.

In particular, South Chungcheong Province is implementing a mandatory pre-education system that requires subsidy program operators to receive education on prevention of subsidy frauds at an initial stage of subsidy application. It also conducted a joint campaign with Asan City to prevent fraudulent receipt of subsidies to guide residents on how to report subsidy frauds and relevant reporting procedures, as well as reward money for reporting, and also produced promotional materials for distribution.

< Subsidy Fraud Prevention Leaflet>

(Spending Budget Properly) To enhance the soundness and transparency of the budget operation, South Chungcheong Province operates a 'Watchdog for Proper Budget Spending,' which is comprised of its residents. Through public competition, etc among residents. South Chungcheong Province has appointed monitoring agents and conducted outreach and cyber education, and workshops to enhance their understanding and expertise in the local budget system. The monitoring agents accompanied provincial officials during the on-site investigation to handle the case filed with the budget waste reporting center to scrutinize whether the budget was being used properly.

South Chungcheong Province also held a watchdog forum to share best practices regarding budget waste prevention and reduction, and the monitoring agents directly proposed measures* to facilitate "proper use of the budget."

* (Example) the monitoring agents suggested that reports merely filed as civil complaints be reduced to expand appropriate reports by disclosing reported cases on budget waste, and that incentives as well as public promotion should be provided to induce budget waste reports.

(Strengthening the audit of apartment houses) South Chungcheong Province strengthened the inspection of apartment houses to protect the rights and interests of residents. In order to enhance the expertise of the audit, a public audit team dedicated to managing and auditing apartment houses was established, and private experts, including advisors of the Central Apartment Houses Management Support Center run by the Korea Land and Housing Corp., as well as certified public accountants, resident auditors and former government officials, participated in the audit team.

Through the audit, South Chungcheong Province detected a total of 131 cases of irregularities, including ▲ improper appointment of housing managers and construction and service operators, ▲ inappropriate payment of benefits to the heads and employees of the apartment house administration offices, ▲ improper reserving of long-term repair fund, and ▲ improper operating expenses for the committee of dwellers represntatives, etc.

South Chungcheong Province will produce and distribute major audit case books to apartment complexes, etc. in order to prevent the occurrence of illegal management of apartments and enhance transparency in apartment management.

"I expect that the education and public promotion to root out irregularities involving public subsidies, which target public officials and the general public, will continue to be strengthened in the future so that accountability and transparency in public finances can greatly increase," said Lim Yoon-joo, director general of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.