Lee Ki-taeg, KORAIL’s chief auditor and inspection officer |
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) was chosen as the most transparent organization among 381 government agencies and state-run companies in 2007 and 2008.
Some may think the railroad operator must have been ``squeaky-clean'' from its inceotion beginning and took just a few steps up the transparency list.
However, its rank in transparency record three years ago was, surprisingly, bottom.
``After we received the lowest transparency level gauged by the now-defunct Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption, we launched a special team to eradicate corruption,'' Lee Ki-taeg, KORAIL's chief auditor and inspection officer, said in an interview with The Korea Times.
The 49-year-old has spearheaded the fight against corruption since 2007, when he assumed his current post.
He organized a task force to have the transparency movement take root in the corporation and ran a school where employees could learn ``transparency 101.''
In a bid to encourage whistle-blowing, Lee also opened Web pages introducing a variety of corruption cases and had workers report them.
He jointly designed the anti-corruption system, which reflects workers' honesty in their salaries, considered an effective means to double transparency.
Under the program, employees with poor scores from the internal affairs department can have their pay cut by up to 10 percent, and vice versa.
``I decided to publicize the amount of money and items that executives and employees spend using company credit cards, which is also believed to help boost transparency in KORAIL,'' Lee said.
It did not take a long time for the company to see fruitful results.
A year later, the corporation was recognized as the most transparent organization and garnered the second highest score in integrity assessment in 2008 by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC)
The corporation became the first state-run organization to earn the Integrity Award from Transparency International Korea last December.
The international group picks six to seven organizations every year that commit to making a clean society.
In recognition of his devotion, Lee received the Order of Civil Merit, the Mogryeon Medal, last Friday. But he humbly said he was receiving the prize on behalf of his organization. ``It's great honor for me to receive the medal. But I think the award was for my company.''
Despite the recent good ranking, Lee said he still has more to do. ``This year, I will do more to help the company reach the top rank in the integrity assessment and be picked as the most transparent organization for the third year in a row.''
ksy@koreatimes.co.kr
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yistory@koreatimes.co.kr
