ACRC Announces “2026 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment Plan for Public Institutions”

- Focus on disseminating the culture of integrity among younger generations and improving corruption-prone areas in local communities through expanded assessments including national/public universities and local public corporations/agencies, to support national task “Reform Corruption Prevention Systems to Realize the Rights of Citizens”

- Conduct systematic assessments by establishing the K-CLEAN assessment model, and strengthening the virtuous cycle of

“assessment-diagnosis-improvement”

(Feb. 11, 2026, ACRC)

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) announced the basic plan for the 2026 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment for Public Institutions on Feb. 11th.

The Comprehensive Integrity Assessment for Public Institutions is one of the major anti-corruption institutions designed to diagnose the level of integrity and corruption-prone areas within the public sector from the people’s perspective, hence improve institutions and practices to realize fair and accountable administration that citizens can tangibly experience.

2026 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment will target 580 public institutions, including central administrative agencies, local governments, offices of education, public corporations, quasi-governmental organizations, public medical institutions, and local councils.

To ensure the sustainability of anti-corruption reforms, particularly, the assessment will expand its target and include more national and public universities, supporting younger generations in internalizing the values of fairness and accountability.

Last year's assessment of national and public universities covered 16 universities which recruit more than 2,500 freshmen. The number of universities will increase this year, covering a total of 33 institutions of 29 four-year national and public universities and 4 science and technology institutes.

For basic councils, the assessment plan is to focus on institutions that received lower grades (grades 4 and 5) last year.

Furthermore, for local corporations and public institutions under metropolitan governments, the number of target institutions will increase from last year's 19 – directly handling real estate – to 33 this year by adding institutions which managing transportation, urban railways, and infrastructure, to improve corruption risk areas in local fields.

The Comprehensive Integrity Assessment for public institutions decides the rank of public institutions by combining the results of assessments in following areas: Integrity Perception, Integrity Effort, and Integrity Penalty Areas.

The Integrity Perception is measured through surveys of citizens who have directly experienced the institution's main services, as well as employees regarding their perceptions and experiences of corruption. The Integrity Effort evaluates the institution's anti-corruption initiatives, such as improvements on corruption-prone areas. Finally, the “Integrity Penalty” was previously assessed separately as corruption status evaluation of each areas until last year. This year, however, they have been integrated and reorganized to enhance the consistency of the assessment system.

*    Deduct points for incidents such as actual corruption cases, failure to perform anti-corruption duties, or actions undermining accountability

This year, in particular, would like to utilize the Integrity Effort indicator to go beyond the formal system operation and support anti-corruption reforms that works effectively in the field. It aims to strengthen integrity education for younger generations, enhance on-site implementation level of conflict of interest prevention institution, and encourage proactive inspections of blind spots in the fraudulent receipt of public funds.

At the same time, the commission establishes the “K-CLEAN” integrity effort assessment model to systematically assess everything from the foundation for anti-corruption initiatives to the implementation performance of integrity policies and institutions, and the outcomes of anti-corruption efforts. Moreover, by identifying corruption-prone areas and linking them to policy feedback loops, a virtuous cycle of evaluation, diagnosis, and improvement will be strengthened.

Based on the announced plan, the ACRC will collect opinions from target institutions at all levels. The implementation plan will finalize in April to May, begin the Integrity Perception survey in August, conduct assessment of Integrity Efforts and Integrity Penalty from October, and announce the final results in December.

The Vice Chairperson of the ACRC Anti-Corruption Bureau, Lee Myong Sun, stated: “The basic plan for the Comprehensive Integrity Assessment of public institutions is prepared to precisely diagnose and analyze the integrity levels of institutions at all levels and, based on the results, enable them to concentrate their capabilities on improving corruption-prone areas.”

He added, “The Commission will continue to encourage autonomous effort of the public institutions to pursue anti-corruption and integrity policies through the Comprehensive Integrity Assessment so that Korea to be placed in the solid 20s in terms of the Corruption Perception Index.”