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Press Release
No more "slap on the wrist" sentences for corrupt public officials
- Date2015-01-08
- Hit1,623
December 3, 2014
90% of public agencies tightened disciplinary systems for corrupt officials
Significant improvements are expected to be made to current lenient punishment practices against corrupt public officials such as arbitrarily mitigating their punishments or not accusing them on the grounds of voluntary return of embezzled money or retirement, despite the huge amounts of the embezzled money.
According to the ACRC, 9 out of 10 public organizations have completed their implementation of the "Plan for strengthening punishment for corruption offenders" that the ACRC had recommended to all levels of public organizations in April.
The ACRC’s analysis of the current practices of punishments for corrupt officials revealed a tendency to impose generous punishments in the overall public sector, due to lax disciplinary systems or cursory operation of such systems.
The ACRC found that more than half of the corrupt officials (58.0%) received light disciplinary measures, and that the weakness in the disciplinary system had caused this tendency of generous punishment. For example, some public service-related organizations organized the disciplinary committee with only their internal officials.
Accordingly, the ACRC recommended that all public organizations amend their internal regulations to create strict disciplinary criteria for corruption offenders and build systems to prevent arbitrary punishment for corrupt officials, such as mandatory prosecution of offenders whose corruption proceeds exceed KRW 2 million, and obligatory inclusion of outsiders as the majority of the disciplinary committee.
In particular, for the intensive implementation of its recommendations, the Commission selected 256 organizations that have strong social influence, including 43 central government agencies, 41 local governments, 17 metropolitan and provincial offices of education, 10 national and public universities, and 145 public service-related organizations, and held meetings to encourage them to lead the performance of the recommendations.
As a result, as of November, 256 major public organizations have completed 2,040 out of 2,261 specific recommended tasks, achieving an implementation rate of 90.2%, which exceeds the initial goal of 80.0%.
The ACRC stated that it would strengthen the cooperation with the concerned agencies to monitor if the improved measures are working in practice and to impose penalties on the organizations that perfunctorily manage the systems in various government evaluations including the Anti-corruption Initiatives Assessment.
An ACRC official said that the ACRC would continuously improve unreasonable institutions and systems to raise public confidence in the public service sector.
He added, "Establishing a principle to reward a merit and to punish a fault by improving the punishment practices for corrupt public officials will help to raise the pride and to boost the morale of public officials in the long-term perspective."
90% of public agencies tightened disciplinary systems for corrupt officials
Significant improvements are expected to be made to current lenient punishment practices against corrupt public officials such as arbitrarily mitigating their punishments or not accusing them on the grounds of voluntary return of embezzled money or retirement, despite the huge amounts of the embezzled money.
According to the ACRC, 9 out of 10 public organizations have completed their implementation of the "Plan for strengthening punishment for corruption offenders" that the ACRC had recommended to all levels of public organizations in April.
The ACRC’s analysis of the current practices of punishments for corrupt officials revealed a tendency to impose generous punishments in the overall public sector, due to lax disciplinary systems or cursory operation of such systems.
The ACRC found that more than half of the corrupt officials (58.0%) received light disciplinary measures, and that the weakness in the disciplinary system had caused this tendency of generous punishment. For example, some public service-related organizations organized the disciplinary committee with only their internal officials.
Accordingly, the ACRC recommended that all public organizations amend their internal regulations to create strict disciplinary criteria for corruption offenders and build systems to prevent arbitrary punishment for corrupt officials, such as mandatory prosecution of offenders whose corruption proceeds exceed KRW 2 million, and obligatory inclusion of outsiders as the majority of the disciplinary committee.
In particular, for the intensive implementation of its recommendations, the Commission selected 256 organizations that have strong social influence, including 43 central government agencies, 41 local governments, 17 metropolitan and provincial offices of education, 10 national and public universities, and 145 public service-related organizations, and held meetings to encourage them to lead the performance of the recommendations.
As a result, as of November, 256 major public organizations have completed 2,040 out of 2,261 specific recommended tasks, achieving an implementation rate of 90.2%, which exceeds the initial goal of 80.0%.
The ACRC stated that it would strengthen the cooperation with the concerned agencies to monitor if the improved measures are working in practice and to impose penalties on the organizations that perfunctorily manage the systems in various government evaluations including the Anti-corruption Initiatives Assessment.
An ACRC official said that the ACRC would continuously improve unreasonable institutions and systems to raise public confidence in the public service sector.
He added, "Establishing a principle to reward a merit and to punish a fault by improving the punishment practices for corrupt public officials will help to raise the pride and to boost the morale of public officials in the long-term perspective."
