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ACRC Announced 2024 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment Results for Public Institutions
- Date2025-01-20
- Hit114
ACRC Announced 2024 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment Results for Public Institutions
- Jeollanam-do Boseong County, Chungcheongnam-do Buyeo County, and Seoul Guro District achieved Comprehensive Integrity Level 1 Grade for three consecutive years
- For the first time, a full-scale evaluation of 243 local councils was conducted this year... The average comprehensive integrity score for local councils was 69.2, lower than that of administrative agencies and public officials-related organizations (80.3)
- The internal corruption experience rate of local governments is 2.18%, and the experience rate of unjust work handling demands by local councils is 19.38%... Efforts are needed to eradicate corruption and improve integrity on the local field
(Dec. 19, 2024, ACRC)
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Ryu Chul Whan) announced today the results of the ‘2024 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment of Public Institutions,’ which comprehensively measures and evaluates the integrity level of 716 public institutions.
The Comprehensive Integrity Assessment results were derived by combining ▴‘Perceived Integrity,’ based on survey results from approximately 300,000 participants, including civil petitioners with experience working with public institutions (approximately 210,000) and internal officials (approximately 85,000); ▴‘Integrity Effort,’ evaluating the anti-corruption efforts pursued by institutions over the year; and ▴‘Corruption Status Assessment,’ which deducts points for corruption incidents."
Assessment Results of Administrative Agencies and Public Service-Related Organizations
First, all five types of institutions, including central administrative agencies (46), metropolitan governments (17), basic local governments (226), education offices (17), and public service-related organizations (154), had a Comprehensive Integrity Level that was the same as or higher than the previous year.
However, the average Comprehensive Integrity score for the total of 460 institutions in 2024 was 80.3 points, reflecting a decrease of 0.2 points compared to the previous year. This decline was influenced by the reduction in the number of evaluation targets for public service-related organizations, which generally have a relatively high integrity level.
Looking by type, while the Integrity Effort scores increased across all institution types, some types saw a decrease in their Perceived Integrity scores, with basic local governments seeing particularly notable decline in their Perceived Integrity scores.
< Comprehensive Integrity Scores by Institution Type and Scores by Each Assessment Area (points, change from a year earlier) >
Category |
Comprehensive Integrity Score |
Perceived Integrity |
Integrity Effort |
All (460) |
80.3 (▼0.2) |
79.2 (▼0.8) |
83.5 (▲1.3) |
Central Admin. Agency (46) |
80.9 (▲0.2) |
81.1 (▲0.5) |
82.8 (▲0.3) |
Metropolitan government (17) |
78.7 (▲0.1) |
77.5 (▲0.3) |
83.0 (▲1.0) |
Basic local government (226) |
77.1 (▲0.2) |
75.6 (▼0.9) |
81.1 (▲2.6) |
Education office (17) |
83.4 (▲1.3) |
79.4 (-) |
89.4 (▲0.5) |
Public service-related org. (154) |
84.6 (-) |
84.0 (▼0.3) |
86.7 (▲0.8) |
By institution, there are 18 (3.9%) institutions that achieved a Comprehensive Integrity Level 1, an increase of 2 institutions from the previous year. Among these, three have maintained a Comprehensive Integrity Level 1 for three consecutive years: Jeollanam-do Boseong County, Chungcheongnam-do Buyeo County, and Seoul Guro District. There were no institutions that achieved a Level 1 in the 'Perceived Integrity' category for three consecutive years, while in the ‘Integrity Effort’ category, the National Health Insurance Corporation achieved Level 1 for three consecutive years.
Out of 460 institutions, 137 (29.8%) experienced an upgrade in their ratings compared to the previous year, while 133 (28.9%) saw a decline. Among these, 20 institutions (4.3%) such as the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and Gyeongsangnam-do moved up two levels, and Gangwon Yangyang County went up three levels compared to the previous year.
Perceived integrity scores decreased by 0.8 points to 79.2, with public officials’ evaluations of internal integrity dropping significantly (-2.5 points). The declines were especially notable in basic local governments (-4.1 points), education offices (-1.9 points), and metropolitan governments (-1.7 points). The rate at which civil petitioners experienced corruption in the process of work handled by public institution decreased to 0.4%, down from the previous year (-0.02 percentage points), whereas the rate of public officials experiencing corruption in internal work procedures increased to 2.18%, an increase of +0.19 percentage points from the previous year.
Additionally, the scores for the category of standard procedure violation in personnel affairs significantly deteriorated, indicating an urgent need to establish measures to eradicate corrupt practices within organizational operations.
The ‘Integrity Efforts’ score rose by 1.3 points to 83.5, indicating that various institutions operated systematic anti-corruption policies with consideration of evaluation criteria. Notably, basic local governments showed the most significant increase for two consecutive years (from 75.9 points in 2022 to 78.5 points in 2023, then to 81.1 points in 2024).
Furthermore, the results from the ‘Leadership Interest and Effort’ indicator in the Integrity Efforts category were analyzed to have a positive correlation with the Comprehensive Integrity Level, suggesting that ongoing interest and effort from high-ranking officials, including heads of institutions, are necessary for the long-term and sustained improvement of integrity levels.
Meanwhile, among the institutions that received anti-corruption consulting from the ACRC, 18 out of 22 institutions with Comprehensive Integrity Levels of 4 and 5 from the previous year saw their ratings increase. Particularly, four institutions — Gangwon Gangneung City, Jeollabuk-do Sunchang County, Gyeongsangbuk-do Education Office, and the Korea Creative Content Agency — significantly raised their Comprehensive Integrity Levels by two levels or more through consulting support by the ACRC.
Evaluation Results of Public Medical Institutions and Local Councils
Public medical institutions (13) and local councils (243) were evaluated using a separate assessment model due to their unique characteristics and nature of work, differing from administrative agencies and public service-related organizations.
The Comprehensive Integrity score of the 13 public medical institutions is 79.6 points, while the score for the 243 local councils is 69.2 points, which is lower than that of administrative agencies and public service-related organizations (80.3 points).
For public medical institutions, the Perceived Integrity score is 78.9 points, and the Integrity Effort score is 86.8 points. Among the 13 institutions evaluated, 2 saw an increase in their Comprehensive Integrity Level compared to the previous year, while 6 experienced a decline.
The Perceived Integrity score, evaluated by citizens who had experience with public medical institutions (contracting, consultations, etc.), is 88.2 points, while the internal integrity score evaluated by the institution’s officials is lower at 58.5 points. The score difference of 29.7 points is the largest among all types, and the rate of corruption experience for internal integrity (1.97%) was significantly higher than that for external integrity (0.22%).
Members of public medical institutions particularly rated the internal integrity sub-items ‘providing preferential treatment to specific individuals due to personal connections’ (51.1 points) and ‘acts of power abuse such as unreasonable demands, instructions, and refusals’ (54.1 points) very low, with the ‘power abuse’ item consistently recording the lowest score among all institution types this year, following the previous year.
The main cause of the occurrence of power abuse was identified as ‘lack of willingness to improve among superiors, including executives’ (28.2%), indicating a need for efforts to promote policies that internal members can resonate with.
The comprehensive integrity assessments of all 243 local councils were conducted for the first time this year. Among the metropolitan councils (17) and basic city councils (75) that were evaluated last year, the councils of Dongducheon City in Gyeonggi Province and Donghae City in Gangwon Province have maintained a Comprehensive Integrity Level 1 for two consecutive years, while the Suwon City Council in Gyeonggi Province saw its integrity level rise by three levels.
The Perceived Integrity score as evaluated by local government officials, employees of subsidiary agencies, and local residents is 67.4 points. The Perceived Integrity consists of the ‘Legislative Activity’ and ‘Council Management’ categories, with the ‘Legislative Activity’ area (66.5 points), measuring the extent to which affairs are handled transparently and fairly without solicitation or requests, being lower than the ‘Council Management’ area (68.9 points), which measures appropriateness in budget execution and organizational/personnel management.
The rate of corruption experience in the Legislative Activity area worsened in all categories compared to the previous year, specifically noting that the experience rate of ‘unreasonable work requests exceeding authority’ increased significantly to 19.38% compared to last year (an increase of 4.96 percentage points in metropolitan councils and 2.13 percentage points in basic city councils), indicating that efforts are still needed to enhance integrity levels in local settings.
The Integrity Efforts score of the 243 local councils is 77.8 points, which is notably lower in basic councils (76.7 points) compared to metropolitan councils (92.7 points).
In particular, the score difference for the ‘enhancement of the enforcement capability of the conflict of interest prevention system’ indicator (34.3 points) is the largest. Given that among the lowest-rated items in the social awareness of corruption in basic councils was 'compliance with the obligation to avoid conflicts of interest' (65.4 points), efforts are needed to establish a system that ensures the obligation to avoid conflicts of interest is properly adhered to when such situations arise during legislative activities.
The results of the comprehensive integrity evaluation will be disclosed to the public through the ACRC and its websites. Additionally, for areas identified as vulnerable to corruption by citizens and public officials, each institution will ly prepare and implement improvement measures.
Lee Myung-soon, Vicechairperson of the ACRC, said, “The results of the continuous efforts to improve areas vulnerable to corruption and anti-corruption in the public sector have emerged as an increase in integrity efforts. However, measures are needed due to the increasing corruption experience rate in internal integrity among local governments and councils.”
He further added, “As the overarching anti-corruption control tower, the ACRC will continue to support the autonomous implementation of anti-corruption integrity policies by public institutions and the improvement of national integrity levels.