ACRC to Conduct a Direct Survey of 270,000 officers and citizens Regarding Integrity Levels of Public Institutions

Starting this year, a new survey method using the mobile application service KakaoTalk to be introduced

(Aug. 18, 2023, ACRC)

The 2023 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment (CIA) to which 629 public institutions across the nation are subject began in earnest.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Kim Hong-Il) announced that in Aug. it began to conduct a survey of approximately 270,000 public servants and citizens (policy customers) who have experienced major public administrative services of public institutions in order to assess the levels of integrity of public institutions.

Since 2022, the ACRC has introduced the revised comprehensive public institution integrity assessment integrating the Integrity Assessment based on a survey of integrity levels of public institutions and the Anti-Corruption Initiative Assessment which evaluated anti-corruption efforts and outcomes of public institutions. This year marks the second anniversary of its implementation.

The CIA consists of the following three areas of assessment to comprehensively reflect the level of integrity of each public institution without being biased towards certain factors: (1) Integrity Perception Level is assessed through a survey of perceptions and experiences of public service users and public servants of the public institution subject to the assessment; (2) Integrity Effort Level is evaluated according to public institutions’ anti-corruption efforts and their performances on related assessment indicators; and (3) Corruption Realities are assessed through reflecting real corruption cases that have actually occurred in public institutions such as corruption-related disciplinary actions and audits, etc.

* CIA score (100%) = Integrity Perception Level (60%) + Integrity Effort Level (40%) – Corruption Realities (up to 10% in max.)

The survey is conducted during the period from Aug. to Nov. and the assessment of anti-corruption effort outcomes will begin starting Oct until the mid-Dec., followed by the release of the final CIA grades for each public institution ranging from 1^st grade to 5^th grade in Dec. 2023.

The 2023 CIA covers 629 public institutions in total categorized into 16 types, an increase by 60 institutions in the number of targeted institutions from last year, and in particular, 92 local councils (17 in metropolitan areas, 75 in local provinces) were included for the first time this year in the CIA, strengthening the assessment of vulnerable areas.

<2023 CIA Target Institutions & Categorizations>

The assessment of integrity perceptions is conducted through mobile or online surveys until Nov. this year.

In particular, starting this year, the mobile survey utilizes the KakaoTalk mobile application service easily accessible to the public, in addition to the current method of using mobile text messages, to improve convenience for survey respondents and the rate of responses.

13031. integrity perceptions survey makes objective and accurate assessment of the levels of integrity of public institutions possible, as it directly asks public service users who have firsthand experiences of services provided by a public institution and employees of the public institution about their perceptions and experiences of corruption during the survey period, unlike other general surveys conducted on multiple random respondents.

Further, the confidentiality of respondents and their answers are thoroughly protected, and all relevant information are encrypted, allowing respondents to participate in the surveys without worries.

The ACRC Vice-chairperson and Secretary General Jeong Seung-yoon said, “The integrity perceptions survey conducted this time provides people with an opportunity to make Korean public sector clean and fair by directly participating in the assessment of the levels of corruption of public institutions,” adding that “their answers are thoroughly protected, so I would like to call for active participation in the survey.”