Korea's public sector integrity rose to 8.51

According to a survey conducted by the Ant-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC), the average integrity index of public sector organizations in Korea scored 8.51 out of 10, an increase of 0.31 from the previous year. The figure is a composite of 'external integrity' (8.61) and the 'internal integrity' (8.14) scores.

The survey findings show that the integrity levels improved in all types of public organizations in the nation, consisting of central government offices, local governments, education offices, and public corporations. Among the organizations surveyed, public corporations recorded the highest score of 8.86, while education offices had the lowest score of 8.05.

While the incidences and amount of bribe payments to public officials dropped over the past year, the cases of undue spending of the government budget showed a slight increase.

The rate of paying money or other valuables to public servants decreased from 0.5% in 2008 to 0.3% in 2009, and the rate of entertainment offering was reduced to 0.3 % in 2009 from 0.6% in 2008. On average, the value of money or other valuables per bribe-payer decreased to 1.35 million won with the amount of entertainment offered declining to 810 thousand won. 

The 'internal integrity,' which is based on a survey of employees within a public organization, decreased by 0.13 points over a year due to increased malpractices related to personnel management and budget spending.

Among central government offices, the Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency and the Ministry of Gender Equality ranked the least corrupt, scoring 9.43 and 9.26 respectively. Poor performers included the Ministry of Unification (7.89), the Public Prosecutors' Office (7.88), the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs (7.83), and the National Police Agency (7.48).

Gwangju (9.41) was the cleanest metropolitan government office and the Gyeongsangnam-do (8.09) ranked at the bottom in the ACRC's survey. Among education offices, Jeju Education Office (8.80) was rated the least corrupt with Busan (7.19) and Daegu (7.08) Education Offices being the most corrupt. The Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation and Korea Airports Corporation were the cleanest public corporations with 9.48 points, while the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (8.22) and Korea Land & Housing Corporation (8.11) were at the bottom.

To further raise the integrity levels of the public sector, the ACRC plans to take measures to improve transparency in budget spending and step up efforts to monitor and control large-scale government projects. It will also continue to improve institutions and systems prone to corruption and aggressively tackle malpractices of public officials.

Starting from 2010, the ACRC will expand the scope of public organizations subject to the integrity assessment and introduce an evaluation of high ranking public officials. The organizations covered by the integrity survey totaled 478 public organizations this year. The Commission will request the organizations with low levels of integrity to submit plans to improve integrity in their organization, while seeking means to impose penalties on such organizations.

The ACRC surveyed by phone or e-mail a total of 119,357 citizens and public servants who directly experienced the service of the public organizations subject to the survey over the past year. The survey was conducted between September and November 2009, and has a reliability of 95% and a margin of error of plus or minus 0.02%.