Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
Anti-corruption policy is vital for a just country
Noh Hyeong-ouk, minister for government policy coordination, speaks with The Korea Times in his office at the Government Complex Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
By Park Ji-won
This is the transcript of an interview The Korea Times and its sister paper, the Hankook Ilbo, conducted with Minister for Government Policy Coordination Noh Hyeong-ouk. ― ED.
Q. What is the meaning of anti-corruption reform under the Moon Jae-in administration?
A. Former administrations had pushed for the eradication of corruption. However, they failed because of the resistance of vested interest groups. As a result, our society ended up having cheating and privilege. In order not to repeat the past, the government is pushing for fundamental reform against corruption, so that, as President Moon Jae-in said, the country will become a just place where people can have equal opportunities in a fair process. The reform is part of an innovation to change the policy, the country's system and practices, which remained corrupt.
Q. What differentiates this administration's drive from past anti-corruption measures?
A. People may think of the recent corruption scandal in 2016 under the Park Geun-hye administration. However, the Moon Jae-in government has its eye on tackling corruption deeply related to people's livelihoods such as hiring irregularities at public firms, illegally receiving government subsidies, power abuse, or “gapjil” in Korean, in the public sector, expanding the meaning of corruption. In particular, in the last 10 months, the government has set the guidelines in the public sectors to define what the term gapjil means and founded a system to tackle the related problems.
Q. What is the role of the Office for Government Policy Coordination when dealing with the anti-corruption drive?
A. As you can see in the office's organization, our job is to support the prime minister and coordinate overall tasks between ministries. The office can only evaluate the ministries through an evaluation committee, which is led by Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon. Since Moon took office, the Political Council on Anti-Corruption, which is led by Moon, has also resumed its operation and come up with the direction of anti-corruption policy. The Office for Government Policy Coordination is participating in the council. We assist the prime minister in dealing with comprehensive measures in the anti-corruption policy, while pushing for the elimination of power abuse in the public sector and unfair government subsidies. As chief of the office, I chair the meetings with vice ministers.
Q. The reform drive is likely to focus on rooting out 'gapjil' in the public sector. Has it produced a positive outcome?
A. It is too early to say, but the government has established a system in the public sector. Until recently, people didn't know what gapjil meant. However, for the last 10 months, since the government announced comprehensive measures in anti-corruption reform, I think citizens started to understand what power abuse is and file complaints with a pan-government complaint center, which now has had about 1,000 consultations with petitioners. Still, it is a short time to change the people's way of thinking and culture. So we are tasked with expanding the system into private society from the public sector.
Q. It appears to be new to define the act of delaying the handling of work as power abuse. Could you elaborate more on its meaning?
A. If someone files a complaint with the administration, a civil servant should handle it within two weeks. But if the officer intentionally delayed doing so even though they could easily do it on the spot, it is considered an abusive act. Society is changing quickly and it is hard for the law to adapt to it. So it is the public officers' job to apply the law in a broad context to fill the gap between society and the law. Otherwise, the government's initiatives to ease regulations to boost the economy will have a limited impact.
Q. Civil servants express worries about taking an active role because they are afraid of taking responsibility for what they do. Do you have any idea on how to deal with that situation?
A. To urge civil servants to take an active role in their work, the government has decided to give them immunity if their work is carried out under a certain procedure. Also, the Board of Audit and Inspection is providing advice on the scope of responsibility for work in advance. The government is planning to give public servants additional credits for active roles, which could be reflected in promotions.
Q. Adding to the eradication of power abuse, the government is trying to eliminate loopholes in receiving government subsidies. What specific measures did you take?
A. Receiving government subsidies in an illegal manner is a criminal act that leads people to distrust the government. As of 2019, government subsidies totaled 77.9 trillion won, accounting for 16.5 percent of all government spending, which is an enormous amount of taxpayers' money. The office has conducted research to figure out what was the problem. We concluded that it was more likely a systematic error that could be screened out. So by using artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the government has launched a monitoring system that shows personal data in various administrative bodies. The system finds patterns of receiving unfair subsidies and notifies the department in charge about this. Also, if a person is found to have received a subsidy in an illegal manner, he or she will not receive government subsidies in the future. The government has also made it a rule to give a person who found the illegal act a reward up to 3 billion won. The law on imposing fines worth more than five times the original subsidies on the people who received government subsidies illegally will be also implemented from January next year.