Korea, UN step up joint efforts against corruption

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) Vice Chairwoman Kwak Jin-young, center, poses with U.N. Development Program (UNDP) Seoul Policy Center Director Anne Marie Sloth Carlsen, left, and UNDP Director Patrick Keuleers after signing a memorandum of understanding in downtown Seoul, Friday, for joint efforts in fighting corruption. / Courtesy of ACRC

By Yi Whan-woo

Korea’s anti-corruption watchdog is stepping up efforts with the United Nations (U.N.) to share its experiences in the fight against corruption in officialdom with developing countries.

According to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) Friday, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) to promote its policies worldwide through networks of the UNDP. The ACRC operates under the Prime Minister’s Office.

The agreement was signed in Seoul between ACRC Vice Chairwoman Kwak Jin-young, and U.N. Assistant Secretary General Magdy Martinez-Soliman, who also serves as the assistant administrator of UNDP.

“With this deal, we want to increase our opportunities to help increase the anti-corruption capacity of developing countries by combining UNDP’s policy expertise,” Kwak said.

Anne Marie Sloth Carlsen, director of the UNDP Seoul Policy Center (USPC), said the MOU “provides an institutional framework for deepening the substantive engagement between ACRC and UNDP worldwide.”

The USPC and the ACRC have jointly launched a project to help Vietnam adopt ACRC’s Anti-Corruption Initiative Assessment, which is aimed at monitoring corrupt practices in officialdom.

USPC was established in 2011 to bolster UNDP’s cooperation with Korea on sharing Seoul’s economic development with underdeveloped countries.