Result of the 2023 Corruption Perception Survey Released

“Integrity in the Public Sector Improved Compared to the Previous Year”

- However, ‘construction, housing, and land’ sectors were perceived to be the most corrupt among other administrative sectors for the third consecutive year.

(15^th January 2024, ACRC)

The results of the 2023 survey on ‘corruption perception’ showed an improvement in the perception of corruption in the public sector compared to the previous year.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Yoo Cheol-hwan) conducted a survey on the corruption perception in 2023 and announced the results of the survey on corruption perception in the public sector and overall society.

The commission has been conducting corruption perception surveys since 2002 to look into and analyze the perception of corruption among members of society regarding the public sector and our society as a whole, to examine the effectiveness of existing anti-corruption policies, and to utilize the data as a basis for formulating new policies in the future.

The 2023 survey was conducted twice, in June and October, targeting 1,400 general citizens, 700 business people, 630 experts, 400 foreigners, and 1,400 public officials.

< Perception of Corruption in the Public Sector >

The response “public officials are corrupt (very corrupt + a little corrupt)” was highest among general citizens (38.3%) and businesspeople (38.3%), followed by experts (31.6%), foreigners (10.3%), and public officials (2.4%).

Compared to the previous year, the perception that “the public sector is corrupt” has generally improved among all survey respondents except for businesspeople, and domestically residing foreigners had relatively positive perception with those who said “public officials are corrupt” accounting for 10.3%.

< Comparison of the percentage of response “public sector is corrupt” >

In each of the 11 administrative sectors, general citizens, businesspeople, experts, and public officials all rated the ‘construction, housing, and land’ sector as the most corrupt, while the 'firefighting' sector was rated as the most transparent administrative sector.

Particularly, the construction, housing, and land sectors were found to be the most corrupt administrative sectors over the past three years following a large-scale corruption scandal involving employees of public land and housing corporation who used insider information for real estate acquisition in 2021.

<Trend in Corruption Perceptions by Administrative Sector Over the Past 3 Years>

The response “our society is corrupt (very corrupt + a little corrupt)” was highest among general citizens (56.5%), followed by experts (42.9%), businesspeople (38.7%), foreigners (12.3%), and public officials (7.9%). Compared to the previous year, the perception that “our society is corrupt” has been more widespread among survey respondents excluding public officials and foreigners.

In 11 social sectors, general citizens, businesspeople, and experts rated the “political parties and legislative bodies” as the most corrupt, while foreigners rated the “religious organizations”, and public officials rated the “media” sector as the most corrupt. On the other hand, general citizens, businesspeople, experts, and foreigners rated the “education” sector with the highest integrity, while public officials rated the “administrative agencies” as the most transparent.

The ACRC Chairperson and Secretary-General Jeong Seung-yoon stated, “With the implementation of various anti-corruption policies by the government, there is an overall trend of improvement in the perception of integrity in the public sector,” adding that “Although general citizens still perceive the level of corruption in our society negatively, we plan to continue spreading a culture of anti-corruption and integrity in line with the expectations of the people, not only in the public sector but also throughout society.”