ACRC Major Achievements for the Past 5 Years & the Way Forward

For the past five years, ACRC has led the efforts to preventing corrupt practices and swiftly resolving infringements on people’s rights and interests caused by unreasonable administrative actions

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (the ACRC) of Korea was established on February 29, 2008, by integrating three institutions, Ombudsman of Korea, Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption, and the Administrative Appeals Commission under the Prime Minister to effectively prevent corrupt practices and to swiftly resolve infringements on people’s rights and interests caused by unreasonable administrative actions.

1. Major Achievements for the Past Five Year

A. Anti-Corruption/Fairness Reform Initiative and Strengthening of Whistleblower Protection System

The ACRC has led anti-corruption and fairness reforms for realization of a transparent and fair society, as a leading organization for the pan-governmental anti-corruption initiative. The Commission focused its efforts for the improvement of policies to help anti-corruption reforms take root in civil service and in everyday lives of people.

First, the presidential “Anti-Corruption Policy Consultation Council for a Fair Society“ has held total seven meetings since its first meeting in September 2017, to continuously push forward with comprehensive and systematic anti-corruption reforms at a national level. Plus, the “Public-Private Consultative Council for Transparent Society“ participated by the ACRC and members from diverse sectors of society including professional circles, civil society, academia, and the public sector was launched in March 2018. The Council has held total 17 meetings so far, where its members mostly from the private sector discussed anti-corruption and integrity issues from people’s perspective to propose solutions.

The ACRC strengthened an institutional foundation for preemptive shutoff of public officials’ corruption and prevention of leak of national finance. The Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest Related to Duties of Public Servants (“Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interests“) was enacted in May 2021 and enforced in May 2022. The Act includes provisions on reporting about persons related with private interests and applications for recusal and challenges, restrictions on employment of family members, restrictions on conclusion of private contracts, prohibition of use of confidential information obtained in course of performing duties, etc. The Act on Prohibition of False Claims for Public Funds and Recovery of Illicit Profits was enforced in January 2020, to enable recovery of maximum five-times amount of falsely-claimed government subsidies.

The institutional foundation for protection and support of whistleblowers who report acts of corruption and violation of public interest has been reinforced. The Act on the Prevention of Corruption and the Establishment and Management of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (“Corruption Prevention and the ACRC Act”) was revised to add those who testify about corrupt acts at the National Assembly or courts, as well as people who report/file suits against corruption, to the subject of protection. The Protection of Public Interest Reporters Act has gone through multiple amendments to increase the number of laws subject to public interest reporting from 180 at the time of the Act’s enactment in 2011 to 471 by the end of 2021, dramatically expanding the scope of protection. Rules on protection and compensation of public interest reporters were reinforced to provide sufficient reward for them; a system of anonymous surrogate reporting through attorneys and a system of punitive indemnification of damages for disadvantageous actions taken against whistleblowers were introduced (2018); punishment of those who disclose the identity of whistleblowers was strengthened (2018, 2020); and the upper limit of monetary reward for public interest reporting was raised to KRW 3 billion from KRW 2 billion (2018).

Such efforts have made Korea’s global standing in the anti-corruption area rise continuously. Korea’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) announced by Transparency International (TI) every year has risen for five consecutive years to reach record-high 62 points in 2021, which was 32nd-highest in the world. Plus, Korea’s Index of Public Integrity (IPI) announced by the European Research Center for Anti-Corruption and State-Building (ERCAS) biannually recorded 8.09 points in 2021, which was 18th highest in the world and the highest in Asia.

B. People-Oriented & Field-Centered Resolution of Social Conflicts and Grievances

The ACRC continued to actively resolve grievance complaints that violate people’s rights or cause inconvenience or burden for people’s lives. Total 82,900 cases of grievance complaint were handled from 2017 to 2021, out of which 11,816 cases have been accepted and resolved. During the same time period, the Outreach Complaint-Handling Bus was provided 425 times, to quickly resolve 4,754 grievance complaints on the spot. The Government Complaints Counseling Center was opened in October 2019 so that people can get a one-stop counseling for complaints related with multiple government agencies. The center provided more than 90,000 counseling services until the end of 2021. The 110 Government Call Center which is a counseling service that provides information for civil petitioners over the phone has been offering more than 10,000 counseling services a day on average.

In addition, the ACRC has found out and addressed long-unresolved collective complaints through active mediation, to reduce social costs incurred by conflicts and to resolve long-standing troubles for people. A decades-long issue of ownerless real estate inside the civilian control line in Yanggu–gun, Gangwon-do Province has been finally resolved and an issue of poor residential environment in leprosy patients’ community in Gyeongju-si was settled through the ACRC’s mediation.

The ACRC received total 116,633 administrative appeal cases through the Central Administrative Appeals Commission for five years from 2017 to 2021. Total 12,248 requests for administrative appeal against illegal/unfair dispositions issued by administrative agencies were accepted. As a result of the ACRC’s continuous effort to raise the percentage of acceptance of administrative appeals, the percentage of acceptance of general cases remarkably increased from 14.0% in 2017 to 19.7% in 2021.

Since the introduction of mediation system for administrative appeals in 2018 until the end of 2021, total 73 administrative appeal cases were successfully mediated through agreement between relevant parties based on the ACRC’s efforts for amicable conflict resolution. In the same year, a system of court-appointed defense counsel for administrative appeals was introduced to help active utilization of administrative appeals by the socially and financially-disadvantaged people. Total 336 administrative appeal cases have been proceeded by court-appointed defense counsel.

C. Operation of Digital Platform for Participation of and Communication with People and Improvement of Policies and Institutions

The ACRC works as the window of communication between the government and people, managing diverse digital platforms for people’s participation and communication with them, including e-People, People’s Idea Box, and so on. e-People system that has been run since 2005 went through a complete reorganization in 2020, so that it can function more conveniently and efficiently. In 2021, as many as 13,265,060 civil petitions were received and handled through the improved system, to open a new chapter of 10 million annual civil petitions processed through e-People.

Since its beginning with participation by 16,000 people in 2016, People’s Idea Box has grown approximately 28-fold for six years until 2021, to become Korea’s leading digital platform for people’s policy participation, in which as many as 445,000 people suggest their ideas. Notably, it recently offerred a driving force for policy change through people’s active participation, by carrying out surveys on major social issues such as “on-line school classes due to COVID-19”, “real estate agent commission”, “CCTV installation at operating rooms at hospitals”, and so on.

The ACRC also actively supported policy improvement of public organizations at different levels by analyzing civil complaint data. Policy improvement was successfully induced by collaborating with relevant institutions, based on the result of analysis of civil complaints regarding major issues of society such as fine dust, COVID-19, and carbon neutrality. “ Civil Complaint Big Data at a Glance“ website was opened in January 2019, to provide the result of civil complaint data analysis to diverse public institutions and the public.

The ACRC actively listened to people’s voices through various channels, to find out loopholes in policies and institutions and to improve them. Total 266 policy improvement recommendations were issued to relevant public agencies for the past five years, including “ban on private contracts with retiree groups“, “enhancement of fairness/credibility of contests hosted by administrative agencies“, “improvement of house agent commission and agent service“, “resolution of blind spots in school meals for children“, and so on. Out of them, 263 recommendations, except for only three, were accepted to result in realistic changes in policies and institutions.

2. The Way Forward

In 2022, the ACRC will continue to take initiative for realizing a trustworthy government and transparent society by preventing corruption, protecting the rights and interests of the people, and communicating with the public, under the vision of “transparent and fair Korea, government taking care of people’s rights and interests”.

First, the Commission will remarkably raise Korea’s integrity level by completing anti-corruption and fairness reforms. For such purpose, anti-corruption and integrity policies will continue to be innovated to live up to the standards of an advanced country with a high integrity level. Consistent efforts will be made so that the culture of anti-corruption and integrity can take root in all areas of society. Swift and fair response measures will be taken against various corruption issues, while strengthening the system for the protection and rewarding of corruption and public interest whistleblowers to help people feel more assured of making such reports.

Second, the ACRC will be quick and active in protecting people’s rights and interests, as a troubleshooters always at people’s side. Top priority will be put on supporting stabilization of livelihoods and businesses of the disadvantaged or small business owners. While focusing more on resolving collective complaints, the Commission will actively cooperate with the local grievance commissions to help them handle and prevent civil complaints on their own. Also, the system for protection of people’s rights and interests through administrative appeal will be actively reinforced.

Lastly, the ACRC will take lead in materializing a people-oriented digital platform for the government. While actively improving policies and systems by reflecting people’s voices based on the result of analysis of civil complaint big data collected through e-People and People’s Idea Box which are the leading digital platform for people’s policy participation and communication with them, counseling for and resolution of civil complaints through the Government Complaints Counseling Center and the 110 Government Call Center will be promoted.