ACRC Provided Online Counseling Services
to 62,000 Grievances over the Last Two Years
in Contact-Free Society

- It will proactively identify and tackle the cause of inconvenience in everyday life and civil complaints involving multiple government agencies –

(19th Oct. 2021, ACRC)

The Government Complaints Counseling Center of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui, ACRC) has promoted online counseling services to tailor to a better environment for contact-free and mobile services that have been accelerated due to COVID-19. As a result, the Center has closed 61,963 counseling cases on civil complaints over the last two years since it was opened.

The ACRC’s Government Complaints Counseling Center is located in the first floor of the Annex (the office building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to Government Complex Seoul, which was opened in October 1, 2019 after expanding and reorganizing ACRC Seoul Complaints Center.

Any citizen who needs a helpline service can access the service through a variety of channels, by making an in-person visit (to Sejong or Seoul office), calling 110 Government Call Center, sending a letter (via mail or fax), or using the online website.

You can access online counseling in “counseling on civil complaints” menu in e-People or “request for counseling” menu on the website of the Government Complaints Counseling Center.

Out of 61,963 cases in online counseling that the Center has closed over the last two years (from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2021) it was able to close 51,972 (83.9%) cases as “case resolved through counseling” where the complaint counselor properly answers the complainant’s inquiry.

The case handling time per case has been shortened from five days when online service was launched to 2.7 days on average now.

By category, 21.6% of cases are on employment and labor, 8.7% on health and welfare, 8.5% on housing and construction, 7.6% on administration and safety, and 6.7% on civil cases and judicial affairs, demonstrating that the majority of cases in online counseling were concerning employment or COVID-19 related issues.

By region, 12,293 or 19.8% cases were from Seoul residents while 15,590 or 25.2%, and 3,399 or 5.5% were from Gyeonggi and Incheon residents, respectively, which shows that 50.5% of the online counseling is requested by residents in Greater Seoul area.

In addition, the Government Complaints Counseling Center has closed 31 civil complaints that involved multiple administrative agencies or required cooperation from different organizations, by conducting dozens of on-site visits and working-level meetings with relevant agencies, resolving inconvenience and difficulties citizens had to suffer as the ownership of certain administrative work was not distinctive.

Major examples of case resolution include: creation of a safe school zone of an elementary school in Dongtan New Town; building of an accessway that had been blocked due to the establishment of Anjung subway station in Pyeongtaek city; electricity supply to citizens through an Occupation Permit on electrical conduits in a Siheung municipal park; prevention of repeated floods in the road connecting Gimpo city to Gangaseo district, Seoul city; and expansion of bus routes from Busan New Port neighborhood for residents.

Gwon Geun-sang, Head of Government Complaints Counseling Center stated “it is encouraging to see more use in online counseling in the pandemic and thanks to the mobile environment, and have a new system of resolving civil complaints that involve multiple administrative agencies established over the last two years. The Center will strive to go beyond from simply providing counseling services on grievances to proactively identify and tackle the cause of the issues that creates inconvenience to citizens in everyday life, and of civil complaints involving different agencies.”