The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) of the Republic of Korea organized a training course to share Korea’s experience in implementing Integrity Assessment and Corruption Risk Assessment with Sri Lanka.

The training course took place on May 15 to 19 at the Anti-Corruption Training Institute of the ACRC in Cheongju for ten public officials from the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) of Sri Lanka.

CIABOC is the constitutional anti-corruption body of Sri Lanka which has extensive mandates including investigation and prosecution of bribery, corruption and illegal accumulation of assets, and raising public awareness of corruption.

The government of Sri Lanka has been implementing the National Action Plan for Combatting Bribery and Corruption in Sri Lanka (2019-2023), which provides for the establishment of corruption prevention committees in public institutions, conduct of institutional corruption risk assessments, and legal amendments to include provisions on protect whistleblowers, witnesses and victims.

The National Integrity Council, comprising a panel of independent experts appointed by the President, will monitor and review the implementation of the national anti-corruption action plan next year.

The ACRC came up with a plan to host this training course to follow up on the official request made by the anti-corruption body of Sri Lanka which showed a keen interest in adopting Korea’s Integrity Assessment and Corruption Risk Assessment.

This tailored capacity-building program was aimed at helping Sri Lanka implement its anti-corruption action plan. Based on more than 20 years’ experience in conducting Integrity Assessment for public organizations in Korea, the ACRC provided intensive training and advice for Sri Lanka to introduce its first assessment of institutional anti-corruption activities.

Integrity Assessment is designed to measure the levels of integrity in individual public organizations, and identify and remove corruption risks in each organization.

It has gained international recognition as best practices in the anti-corruption field as the first place winner of 2012 UN Public Service Awards in the category of “preventing and combating corruption”. The assessment program has been introduced to five countries including Indonesia, Mongolia and Thailand.

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An ACRC Official said, "the ACRC will spare no efforts to help Sri Lanka improve its national integrity by adopting Korea’s anti-corruption systems such as Integrity Assessment and Corruption Risk Assessment.”

An ACRC Official added “the ACRC will continue to expand technical cooperation in the field of anti-corruption and governance to help countries in the Indo-Pacific region promote democracy and achieve sustainable development”.