Kim Young-ran

By Chung Min-uck

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) said Wednesday that its system on checking the transparency on public sectors won a United Nations Public Service Award.

The commission entered the Public Service Awards 2012 in the category of anti-corruption with its system conducting an annual survey of around 220,000 citizens and public officials to evaluate the level of corruption of governmental bodies.

The system began in 2002. Since then the number of bodies evaluated by the anti-corruption agency has risen from 71 to 684 in 2011.

This year 1,344 anti-corruption systems from public sectors around the world vied for the award.

“Through the announcement of our win, it could be said the ACRC’s scientific and objective method of evaluating the corruption rate is recognized around the world,” said Kim Young-ran, chairwoman of the ACRC. “We plan to upgrade our model to keep up with the new patterns of corruption that people feel uncomfortable with.”

The awards will be presented at a high-level event on June 23 on the occasion of United Nations Public Service Day, celebrated annually.