All Local Councils to be Subject to Comprehensive Integrity Assessment from This Year

- ACRC to conduct a survey for the Comprehensive Integrity Assessment starting from August, including via phone, text messages, and Kakao Talk, with new indicators to assess local councils’ integrity levels being introduced

- Active participation by local citizens are required for the integrity assessment of local councils

(1 Aug. 2024, ACRC)

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Ryu Chul Whan) launched a survey in August to assess comprehensive integrity levels of all 243 local councils in the country.

Until last year, the ACRC conducted the Comprehensive Integrity Assessment which targeted metropolitan councils and lower level local councils, however, starting from this year, it will expand the scope of target institutions to incorporate all local councils in the nation to improve their relatively lower integrity levels compared to other public institutions.

The ACRC conducted surveys of central administrative agencies and public service-related organizations, etc. following the survey of local councils via phone, text messages, and Kakao Talk in August.

The three areas of assessment, that is, the integrity perception level (80%) measured by surveys of public officials, entities, experts, and local residents who are associated with local councils; the integrity effort level (20%) measured by anti-corruption initiative performance outcomes of local councils; and the corruption reality (10%) measured by the status of corruption cases occurred and reflected as a deduction point, are reflected in the results of the Comprehensive Integrity Assessment of Local Councils.  

In particular, this year, the indicators to assess the integrity effort levels of local councils have changed a lot from a year earlier. New indicators, such as those assessing whether local councils are complying with their basic duties under law, including senior officials’ duty to complete integrity training; whether local councils are conducting voluntary monitoring of their implementation status of conflict of interest prevention system and face-to-face education for prohibition of abuse of authority; or whether local councils have designated an officer in charge of improper solicitation prevention, have been included.

As there are many councils to be assessed for the first time this year, each local council needs to be cautious in their preparation for the comprehensive integrity assessment, carefully examining the assessment criteria based on this year’s plan for the assessment and submitting their performance outcomes from Jan. to September by the designated deadline.

The Acting Director of Anti-Corruption Bureau of the ACRC Kim Sang Nyon said, “The Comprehensive Integrity Assessment of Local Councils require interest and efforts from all of those constituting the local councils, including local councilors. As the responses of local residents to the survey are directly reflected into the results of the integrity assessment, I would like to call for their active participation.”