ACRC Wages an All-Out War Together with 17 Municipalities for Anti-Corruption and Improvement of Rights and Interests

- ACRC finishes a nation-wide 80-day integrity journey -

[Ten Anti-Corruption and Integrity Innovation Initiatives] To create a cooperative system to address citizen complaints and establish foundational principles for public offices by working together with 17 municipalities

(21^st Jun. 2021, ACRC)

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights completed its 80-day journey of signing MoUs for anti-corruption and improvement of rights and interests with 17 cities and provinces across the nation. The journey started from Gyeong-gi province in April to make Korea one of top 20 advanced countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

The ACRC is to establish Ten Anti-Corruption and Integrity Innovation Initiatives to prevent moral hazard in public offices, just like the LH land speculation scandal.

Cooperating with local governments for anti-corruption and supporting their innovation to enhance integrity and fairness in the public sector is one of the Ten Innovation Initiatives.

In the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) announced earlier this year, Korea has moved up for four consecutive years to the 33^rd place out of 180 countries around the world. It aims at becoming an advanced country in integrity by evolving into one of top 20 countries next year.

However, due to the recent LH land speculation scandal, Korea’s CPI can be downgraded and the government lost trust from its people. To recover from this, the ACRC believes that it should re-establish even more fundamental principles in the public sector and conduct a reform at a nation-wide level. In this regard, the commission signed MoUs with 17 cities and provinces to strengthen cooperation and support reforms for anti-corruption among public officials.

After signing the MoUs, the ACRC will not stop there and continue to review integrity and fairness of the public sector and make a practical and ground-breaking improvement. To this end, it plans to actively implement follow-up measures with each municipalities, such as enhancing guidelines for anti-corruption and protection of rights and interests, integrity consultation, and specific and concrete cooperation programs.

For the 17 municipalities, policy support will be strengthened to enhance integrity in each office by first training all staff members regarding the Act on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Activities of Public Officials which is scheduled to be effective from May next year, while providing consultation to each office on the anti-corruption and integrity policies as well as operation of public interest reporter protection system. Besides, the commission raises awareness of public officials about anti-corruption by making integrity education program mandatory at education and training centers under each municipalities.

Furthermore, the ACRC solidifies cooperation to support the creation of citizen complaint handling committee in each municipality and to mediate and resolve current complaints and group complaints in each region, so that complaints of citizens in different regions can be addressed faster than before. In addition, by creating an organic cooperation system between Central Administrative Appeals Commission and Regional Administrative Appeals Commissions in different municipalities, the ACRC addresses illegal and/or unfair administrative dispositions that violate rights and interests of citizens in an even faster fashion.

While providing a packaged policy support on the matters requiring cooperation with municipalities, the ACRC plans to regularly review the progress and performance of the cooperation.

Moreover, in order to complete all Ten Anti-Corruption and Integrity Innovation Initiatives in Public Institutions as soon as possible, the commission is going to expedite the implementation of the initiatives. Notably, it reforms the integrity evaluation system to ensure the implementation of the MoUs and to make each organization actively lead anti-corruption policies.

Meantime, it strengthens its cooperation for anti-corruption to enhance integrity level at local councils. While signing MoUs with municipalities, the ACRC also signed anti-corruption agreement with five local councils in Busan, Daejeon, Sejong, Chungcheongnam-do, and Jeollanam-do.

The ACRC will sign the anti-corruption agreement with other local councils to expand integrity education for the members of the local councils. Also, it will manage areas vulnerable to conflict of interest, and bolster cooperation for the compliance to the code of conduct among the members of local councils. At the same time, to spread the efforts of 17 municipalities for higher integrity to other public organizations, the commission will sign MoUs with major public companies, as well. By doing so, the certification system for ethical and compliant management will be operated first for public companies on a trial basis. Then, the system will be eventually expanded to private companies. Additionally, it will create criteria for acceptable gifts for the private sector, so that integrity can take root not just in the public sector, but also across the society.

With these MoUs, the ACRC and municipalities will join their force to review areas vulnerable to corruption and actively implement integrity policies that local citizens can see tangible effects. As a result, it is expected that the distrust toward the public sector triggered by the LH land speculation scandal can be resolved and Korea can take a step closer to its national target of becoming one of top 20 countries in the CPI.

In addition, a strong cooperation system was established to resolve complaints of local citizens as well as social conflicts. Therefore, it is believed that this will offer a momentum to protect rights and interests of citizens even more thoroughly and practice more active administration empowering citizens.

An ACRC Official said, “signing the MoUs for anti-corruption with local governments across the nation is making a promise with citizens by expressing the government’s willingness to reform and renovate itself for anti-corruption,” adding “the commission will exert its best efforts to enhance integrity and fairness in the public sector by closely working together with other agencies down the road, and eventually become one of top 20 countries in the CPI.”