ACRC Initiates Building Reporting System to Prevent Conflicts of Interest That Any Korean Citizen Can Use

- A Standard Reporting System Will Be Accessible to All Public Institutions -

(28th Oct. 2021, ACRC)

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui, ACRC) is set to build a standard reporting system to prevent conflicts of interest that can be managed by multiple public institutions before the Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Public Office takes effect in May next year.

In an effort to build a standard reporting system, the ACRC will add functions for processing the work regarding the prevention of conflicts of interest to Clean Portal, which allows any Korean citizen to easily access the government’s anti-corruption policies and institutions via online.

※ ACRC’s Clean Portal: a website that allows any Korean citizen to report violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, corruption on employment, illicit acts of receiving welfare services and subsidies or of claiming public funds; other acts of corruption, violation of codes of conduct, or acts of violating public interests to public institutions; to seek for consultation; and to view the handling process over the Internet

The standard reporting system will not only provide citizens an easy access to Clean Portal that the Commission operates to report and get consultation on a violation of the Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Public Office (Conflict of Interest Prevention Act), but also enable public institutions handle and manage mandatory reporting, such as private interests, made by their employees.

Furthermore, the ACRC, which oversees the national efforts in preventing conflicts of interest, will be able to systematically manage the status of the entire public institutions’ reporting regarding ten mandates on the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act as well as handling the results of the reports.

The Commission plans to build the standard reporting system based on the government-wide integrated cloud to enhance safety and security and reduce burden on public institutions.

The integrated cloud environment will ensure flexible responses even if the number of agencies that use the reporting system grows, and the safe management against external cyber attacks. The environment will also increase the security of Reporter confidentiality and protection so that a Reporter would feel safe to report a violation of the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act.

In order to enable all public institutions to start working on conflicts of interest, which is scheduled to govern some two million public officials from May next year, without a hitch, the ACRC in advance developed a project plan for building a standard reporting system to prevent conflicts of interest before commissioning the Public Procurement Service for a tender. The ACRC is planning to select a company that will carry out the project by the end of this year, and initiate the project in January next year.

Kim Ki-seon, the Chief of Inspection & Protection Bureau of ACRC stated “we need a system to report and manage conflicts of interest to implement the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act on the ground as quickly as possible. The Commission will not only build a system but boost the use of the system through user training and promotion among the public.