Developing Countries Learn Korean Anti-Corruption Model
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
``Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.'' may be a suitable biblical phrase to describe the advance of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) which was launched six months ago through the merger of the two government agencies in line with the Lee Myung-bak administration's small but efficient government philosophy.
The organization has established a system of gauging transparency which helps lessen corruption in government agencies.
The Incheon City Office received tips from the commission led by Yang Kun on how to establish an anti-corruption atmosphere last Wednesday.
``Despite efforts to eradicate corruption, the city has yet to institutionalize the anti-corruption system,'' the agency said. ``We advised the city to adopt the system to measure transparency of public servants so that the scores will be used in personnel management.''
The commission plans to advise six government offices until October, including the Gyeonggi Provincial Government and the Korea National Railroad in keeping with the advisory agreements.
The commission has arranged a series of lectures on transparency to students, public officers and business leaders.
The program is also available on the Internet and approximately 15,000 people are scheduled to attend the lectures, the ACRC spokesman Kim Dok-man said.
The anti-corruption body began the ``Clean Korea 21'' campaign to encourage all citizens and Internet users to join the move to eradicate corruption.
In a bid to make officialdom more open, the watchdog reinforced the code of conduct for public servants.
It presented specified criteria to punish civil servants involved in bribery and abuse of power.
It has also made full use of the whistle-blowing system, which the Korea Independent Commission against Corruption (KICAC) has established.
The KICAC was merged with two other civil rights organizations to form the ACRC this year.
The commission has given whistleblowers 138 million in rewards for reporting corruption cases involving public officials.
In July, six unidentified whistleblowers received 88.2 million won in return for reporting corruption-related cases including the subsidy embezzlement of a youth training camp.
``Whistle blowing is critical in building a clean, transparent society and retrieving wasted taxes, the spokesman said.
Korean Anti-Corruption Model
The ACRC is leading anti-corruption moves in the Asia-Pacific region for a transparent society.
Ten public officers from the Buddhist country of Bhutan visited the organization Aug. 1 to learn Korean know-how on anti-corruption.
The group, including Thinlay Wangdi, chairman of Bhutan's corruption prevention committee, learned about the transparency measuring system, whistle blowing program and the code of conduct for public servants.
The agency officials also met with their Indonesian counterparts in Jakarta July 17 with the goal of implementing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on mutual cooperation on combating corruption.
It advised the Southeast Asian country to complement programs provided by the organization last year to gauge transparency levels, the spokesman said.
The Indonesian body has tested 30 government offices with the transparency gauging system and plans to measure up to 100 government agencies every year, he added.
Additionally, the ACRC agreed to support Bangladesh to boost transparency.
It offered the anti-corruption manual on strategy development and promised to provide a two-week education program once a year in which Bangladesh's public officers engaged in anti-corruption duty.
The organization has received $9.5 million in funding from the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) of which Convention against Corruption highlights the prevention of dishonesty.
It set out model preventative policies such as the establishment of anti-corruption bodies and enhanced transparency in the financing of election campaigns and political parties.
Spokesman Kim said the ACRC will continue to making an effort to boost transparency and stretch anti-corruption moves through close cooperation with the UNDP.