ACRC, "More Than 80% of Organizations Related to Public Service Plans to Revise Regulations by April so Major Rule-breakers Can't Receive Incentives.“

- More Than 85% of the Organizations Plan to Realign Early Retirement Allowance Scheme by April -

(17 February 2021, ACRC)

More than 80% of organizations related to public service revealed their plans to revise regulations, by the end of April, regarding the incentive payment to major rule-breakers and the early retirement allowance payment to those who have received disciplinary actions and are not eligible for promotion.

In October last year, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui, ACRC) checked on the implementation progress on its suggestions for institutional improvement to ban paying the annual incentive to the employees of organizations related to public service when they receive heavy sanctions or disciplinary actions due to sexual offenses and drunk driving; and to prohibit paying early retirement allowances to those who are not able to be promoted due to disciplinary measures, just as the same rule applies to public servants.

Of 619 organizations, 544 institutions run incentive schemes and 492 agencies operate early retirement programs. As for the incentive schemes, 542 organizations, except for 2 agencies, responded that they would act on the Commission's advice while 491 institutions, excluding 1 organization, said that they would implement the ACRC's suggestion as to early retirement allowance payment.

Concerning the timeline for revising incentive regulations, 186 organizations (34.3%), including Korean Educational Development Institute, revealed that they had completed the revision last year, or were in the final stage of the amendment; whereas 248 institutions (45.7%), such as Kangwon Land Casino, and 108 agencies (19.9%), including Korea South-East Power, commented that they planned to finish the revision by the end of April and after April, respectively.

Out of 491 organizations that responded that they would realign the allowance system for early retirement, 271 institutions (55.2%), such as Press Arbitration Commission, completed the amendment by the end of last year. 152 agencies (30.9%), including K-water, and 68 institutions (14%), such as Korea Electric Power Corporation, plan to have the regulation revised by April and after April, respectively. Some of the organizations that have completed the amendment had made the change before the ACRC delivering the advice.

A considerable number of organizations that claimed to realign the system after April stated that they were planning to make the change once the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety realign their guidelines.

Given the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety revealed their plans to accept its advice to revise the guidelines, the ACRC will encourage these Ministries to make the revision as early as possible so that other organizations related to public service can follow suit while engaging the organizations directly to push ahead with the amendment.

Last year, the ACRC reviewed the payment system of incentives and early retirement allowances in organizations related to public service to find out that incentives amounted to 10.1 billion won had been paid to 1,244 employees who had been subject to heavy sanctions in the last 5 years, and 4.2 billion worth of early retirement allowances had been given, during the same period, to 36 employees who had not been eligible for promotion due to disciplinary measures.

Upon learning it, the Commission advised organizations related to public service not to pay incentives to ▴employees who are under heavy sanctions, ▴rulebreakers who are subject to disciplinary measures effective for 5 years taken due to the receipt of money, gifts and entertainment, embezzlement, etc., ▴offenders of sexual violence, sex trafficking and sexual harassment, and ▴drunk drivers, just as the same rule applies to public servants. It also advised the organizations not to pay early retirement allowances when employees who are not eligible for promotion due to disciplinary actions retire.

Yang Jong-sam, Chief of the Institutional Improvement Bureau of the ACRC said that "as the agency that overseas the nation's anti-corruption efforts, we are going to further encourage public institutions to take our suggestions into action. We plan to continue to proactively identify the areas that the people feel to be unfair, and make institutional improvement on them.