ACRC announces 2009 Corruption Perceptions Survey (CPS)

According to the 2009 CPS, foreigners’ perceptions toward Korean public service, which had been deteriorating since 2006, improved quite a bit in 2009.

Businessmen and ordinary citizens also responded that corruption problem involving public officials got better year-on-year. When asked to name corruption-causing factors, they sited “social culture that tacitly allows corruption practices.” Regarding the most urgent task to eliminate corruption, they pointed out “harsher punishment for corruption.”     

On the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9^th, the ACRC commissioned the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Survey to a Pollster “Research Plus” from October 17^th to November 18^th, and made public the results. The survey was done through telephone and email on 1,400 ordinary citizens, 700 businessmen and 200 foreigners with ±2.62%P sampling error and 95% confidence level.

Foreigners’ corruption perception of Korean public officials, which had been exacerbating since 2006, was improved from 4.05 in 2008 to 4.58 out of 10 in 2009.

Perception level of businessmen increased from 4.18 to 4.63. The perception level of the ordinary citizens also improved a little bit.  

However, in administrative area, construction, land and housing are perceived to be the most corrupt and have a lot of room to improve. 74.4% of the ordinary citizens and 57% of businessmen said the 3 areas are the most corrupt.

Regarding the level of corruption by area in Korean society, 47.6% of ordinary citizens singled out the political parties and legislature as the most corrupt, followed by administrative agencies (37.6%) and state-run corporations (28.1%). On the other hand, 58.9% businessmen said the political parties and legislature are the most corrupt followed by state-run corporations (31.3%) and administrative agencies (31.1%).

76.4% of opinion leaders and 80.4% of the youth said the political parties and legislature are corrupt.  

When asked about integrity level of constitutional organizations, opinion leaders gave the National Assembly 2.77 points, courts of law 5.48, the Constitutional Court 6.32, the National Election Commission 6.52 and the Board of Audit and Inspection 6.01 points.  

Ordinary citizens, businessmen, foreigners and opinion leaders alike pointed out social culture that condones corruption as the main culprit that causes corruption. Many of the respondents sited irrational laws and regulations as a corruption-causing factor.  

39.7% of the ordinary citizens cited stronger punishment for corruption, 18.1% of them mentioned improvement in laws and regulations and 13.4% of them named anti-corruption activities as priorities to eliminate corruption. The young, on the other hand, responded that rigorous detection and punishment (23.8%) and changes in mindset where people resort to an expedient (23.8%) should be priorities to eliminate corruption.   

Regarding the level of corruption in the future, many ordinary citizens, businessmen and foreigners said corruption in Korean society will decrease, whereas 51.7% of juveniles said that corruption will increase. 

Based on these findings, the ACRC plans to expand its Integrity Assessment to cover all public organizations, and high-ranking public officials and civil servants in charge of permit and license, establishing a strict detection and punishment system that drives out corrupt officials. To deal with corruption-prone areas, the ACRC will reform institutions and systems, strengthen implementation review, promote inter-ministerial cooperation and spread a culture of integrity to entire nation.