ACRC Released Basic Plan for 2022 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment of Public Institutions

- A total of 573 public institutions including central and local administrative agencies, education offices, public-service related organizations, national universities and public medical institutions to be subject to 2022 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment

- The survey on interested parties, anti-corruption efforts by institution, and current status of corruption to be all reflected into the Assessment

(3rd Mar. 2022. ACRC)

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Jeon Hyun Heui) released the Basic Plan for 2022 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment of Public Institutions on March 3 that specifies target public institutions and introduces the main direction for the 2022 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment (CIA).

This year, ACRC plans to determine and announce the comprehensive integrity levels for each public institution by reflecting the results of survey among interested parties (integrity perception level), integrity improvement efforts by institution (integrity effort level), and the current status of corruption cases (corruption realities) into the assessment, according to the integrity assessment reorganization plan it announced in December last year.

There are 573 institutions in total that are subject to the 2022 CIA, including central administrative agencies, local governments, metropolitan and provincial education offices, public-service related organizations, national universities and public medical institutions.

Compared to last year when the number of public institutions subject to both the Integrity Assessment and the Anti-Corruption Initiative Assessment was 273, the number of target institutions in 2022 has more than doubled.

< 2022 CIA Target Institutions >

* Local district education offices (176 offices) are exhaustively included in the scope of the assessment, and their assessment results are all incorporated into those of the Metropolitan and Provincial Offices of Education.

Central administrative agencies (46), metropolitan and local district governments (243), metropolitan and provincial education offices (17), public enterprises (36) and quasi-government agencies (94) under the Act on the Management of Public Institutions among public-service related organizations have all became subject to the assessment in 2022.

In particular, in line with the support for the integrity improvement of local areas and the implementation of local community policing system, the comprehensive integrity levels of 18 metropolitan and provincial police agencies will be assessed on a trial basis.

In addition, regional public corporations directly handling real estate and those related with transportation and facility management were also included in the scope of the assessment, given the enforcement of the Act on the Preention of Conflict of Interest Related to Duties of Public Servants in May and their influence.

As for the national universities and public medical institutions that received relatively poor grades in the previous integrity assessment and anti-corruption initiative assessment compared to other types of institutions, ACRC plans to conduct broader assessment to support their general integrity improvement.

In the case of national universities and public medical institutions, 33 national universities (up 17 from last year), including universities with smaller entrance quota, and 17 national university-affiliated hospitals and dental hospitals, excluding local medical centers dedicated to infectious disease given the Covid-19 situation, are subject to the assessment this year.

                              < Major Changes Reflected into 2022 CIA >

* 2022 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment of 18 Metropolitan and Provincial Police Agencies to be conducted on a trial basis

ACRC plans to revise the contents and methods of the assessment of the integrity perception level, integrity effort level and the status of corruption cases, which construct the comprehensive integrity level, and apply stricter assessment standard.

          < Basic Direction for 2022 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment >

(Integrity Perception Level) the integrity level of external duties of public institutions and that of internal organizational operation will be assessed by civil complainants and internal members of the public institutions, respectively by responding to the survey on their corruption perception and the level of corruption they actually experienced, while the scope and items of assessment, including types of external duties subject to the assessment for each institution, will be reexamined for revision.

(Integrity Effort Level) A quantitative and qualitative assessment will be conducted to measure the anti-corruption performances and achievements of each public institution while the results of the survey of internal members of the institution on whether their anti-corruption initiatives are effectively working will be reflected into the assessment.

As public institutions’ efforts to improve their integrity level are directly reflected into the comprehensive integrity assessment, each institution needs to focus its capability on promoting anti-corruption policies, and in line with this, the relevant assessment system and indicators will be completely revised.

In order for the Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest Related to Duties of Public Servants slated to be implemented starting on May 19th this year to be effective, new assessment indicators, such as those to assess whether the operational foundation for the Act is well established within an institution and how much efforts an institution has made to realize proactive governance and voluntarily detect corruption cases, etc., will be created to jump-start efforts to improve integrity of institutions of various levels.

More scores will be allotted or assessment criteria will be strengthened for the existing indicators that are key to enhancing the integrity of institutions, such as those that assess: whether a public institution has established and carried out an anti-corruption action plan that sets out its anti-corruption policy direction and corruption-prone areas that need to be improved; anti-corruption efforts and commitment of the head and high-ranking officials; the establishment of anti-corruption systems including implementation of recommended institutional improvements; improvements in the effectiveness of anti-corruption education; and efforts to protect corruption reporters and whistleblowers.

(Corruption Realities) ACRC will conduct quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the current status of corruption cases that occurred in public institutions of various levels, and deduct points from the sum of the final scores of the perception and effort level. It will also expand the scope of cases subject to points deduction and raise the deduction ratio for strict evaluation of the actual state of corruption in public institutions.

ACRC plans to draw up an action plan that contains detailed assessment contents and criteria for 2022 CIA in mid-May as follow-up measures for the Basic Plan and notify target institutions. The results of 2022 CIA will be released in January next year.

ACRC’s Anti-Corruption Bureau Director General Han Sam-Seok said, “This year marks the first year to conduct the Comprehensive Integrity Assessment evaluating not only the integrity perception of the people and public officials but also the anti-corruption efforts made by public institutions of various levels. I expect that we will be able to provide the people with more comprehensive information on public institutions’ integrity levels. ACRC will create the impetus for the national integrity level to take a leap forward by continuously pushing for the anti-corruption reform, cooperating with public institutions through CIA.”