ACRC held metropolitan government auditors meeting to improve the integrity of local government officials

- ACRC made recommendations for improvement on 60 bylaws in conjunction with 30 public institutions -

August 11, 2020

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

Marking the second anniversary of the 7th popularly elected officials, the chairperson of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission called on local government officials (including local councilors) to establish the public service ethics and codes of conduct that meet the public’s expectations.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission on August 11 held a meeting of auditors of metropolitan councils at the building of the ACRC in order to come up with and spread measures to improve the integrity of officialdom.

The participants of the meeting discussed ways to improve the integrity assessment and corruption risk assessment system to induce active administration; measures to overhaul the system to prevent conflicts of interest; the status of inspection of fraudulent claims to prevent leaks of public finances; and other matters related to anti-corruption policies.

Since taking office on June 29, Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, has stressed the establishment of discipline in public offices that meet the public demands by redefining the anti-corruption control tower function of the Commission.

The ACRC plans to come up with the following measures and actively promote their implementation.

(Improvement of evaluation factors for inducing active administration) Starting this year, the “active administration” element will be added to the survey questionnaire to assess the integrity levels of public institutions to reflect whether the public institution concerned provided active administration services. In particular, from September, the ACRC will issue recommendations to make improvements on enacted or revised laws and regulations of each ministry so that each ministry can induce active administration in the process of enacting and revising their laws by adding “the probability to cause passive administration services” to the criteria for the Corruption Risk Assessment that eliminates risk factors for corruption in advance.

(Establishment of more effective code of conduct system for local governments) Local governments at various levels will update their codes of conduct for members of local councils by incorporating the provisions related to the prevention of conflicts of interest and abuse of power and implement recommendations for the improvement of the system related to the reporting on local councilors’ holding concurrent office and the prohibition of signing private contracts. In the meantime, the ACRC will promote the enactment of the Act on the Prevention of Conflicts of Interest in Public Offices and conduct an inspection of the implementation of the code of conduct for local councils starting from the end of September.

(Checking the status of fraudulent claims on public finances) Starting in September this year, the ACRC will inspect the implementation status of the Public Finance Recovery Act, including the recovery of all illegal profits and the imposition of penalties of up to five times the amount of fraudulently claimed public funds.

An ACRC Official said, “Local governments are the closest point of contact for direct communication and interaction with the general public and businesspeople, and the level of integrity of local government officials is the basis of national integrity,” and called on auditors from 17 metropolitan and provincial governments to “exercise their duties from the perspective that the passive administration is also a form of corruption.”