ed Uprooting corruption

Legislators should hurry to pass landmark anti-graft bill

Since the Sewol disaster in April that left more than 300 dead or missing, corruption has largely been blamed for the unprecedented catastrophe. It might be natural then for the public to expect the problems associated with the nation’s endemic corruption to be exposed and reduced ― albeit slightly ― but the reality is quite the opposite.

According to the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report issued by Transparency International, Korea ranked 43rd among 175 countries with 55 points out of 100. Among the 34 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korea is ranked 27th.

The index evaluates countries based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived. A score of 70 points and above is regarded as evidence of a comparatively clean society in general, whereas a score somewhere in the range of 50 points is taken as meaning that a society is on the cusp of "absolute corruption.’’

Given this, Korea has a long way to go before it can rid itself of being the ``Republic of Corruption.’’ One can take it for granted that Korea is no match for corruption-free countries such as Denmark, which ranked first with 92 points, but it is lamentable that Korea falls far short of other Asian countries ― Singapore is ranked 7th, Japan 17th and Taiwan 35th.

The big question is that Korea has shown no improvement over the past few years as far as corruption is concerned. This is a sad reflection on Korea, which is treated as an advanced country in terms of economic power, but apparently disregards tackling corruption.

The magnitude of our graft problems is also proven by another report on integrity in public institutions announced by the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission this week. The average score of integrity among the 640 organizations surveyed was 7.78 out of 10, a decline from 7.86 last year.

What is dumbfounding is that most powerful agencies were near the bottom in terms of integrity ― the National Tax Service finished last among 17 central government units with a score of 6.71. It is no wonder then, considering that people have been fed up with graft scandals in the public sector all year round ― from the emergence of collusive links between bureaucrats and industries revealed through the Sewol tragedy to bribery and opportunism in weapons procurement programs. One cannot help but wonder if Korea might even be regressing in terms of addressing corruption.

All this explains why our legislators should do far more to pass a landmark anti-corruption bill, which has been stuck in the parliament since August last year, as soon as possible.

Corruption is certainly a crime that undermines our competitiveness, but is it asking too much if we believe that Korea will be able to create new growth momentum by stamping out corruption successfully?