All unlawful gain will be confiscated if employees of public corporations and enterprises as well as public officials are found to have received bribes or been treated to undue extravagant entertainment.

 

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission on October 13 unveiled measures to eradicate the ongoing practices of receiving bribes and lavish entertainment in the public sector. Its measures include improving the effectiveness of the current disciplinary surcharge initiative, and confisticating undue benefits employees of public enterprises and corporations gained through bribery and illegal provision of entertainment.

 

The disciplinary surcharge program is to charge public officials the equivalent of one to five times the amount of bribes and entertainment they received. The initiative was introduced in March 2010 to confiscate undue gain even though the corruption case has been dealt with through internal disciplinary action and not subject to criminal proceedings. The amount of the total disciplinary surcharges imposed on corrupt public officials since this program became effective amounted to over KRW 360 million in 140 cases.

 

However, the Commission found that some agencies supposed to manage the program had neglected their duties. For example, requests for disciplinary committees to decide on disciplinary surcharges were omitted in some cases, while in others committees did not issue disciplinary surcharges, raising concerns over the effectiveness of the program.

 

Against this backdrop, the Commission recommended that the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Ministry of Public Administration and Security and other government agencies create detailed guidelines regarding the imposition, mitigation and exemption of disciplinary surcharges. It also recommended that corporate bylaws of public enterprises and corporations be revised to confiscate their employees’ improper gains from bribes and entertainment.

 

The Commission said it expected the improvements in the initiative would strengthen punishments against the corrupt practices of receiving bribes and entertainment, helping to deter corruption in the public sector.