On February 19, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) held the International Conference on Enhancing Integrity in Defense Acquisition in Seoul. Marking the 10th anniversary of the foundation of DAPA, the conference was aimed at discussing the eradication of corruption in the defense industry, and creating a long-term road map to spread a culture of integrity. The conference was attended by about 300 participants from home and abroad, including ACRC Chairman Sung Yung-hoon; DAPA Minister Chang Myoung-jin; Vice Minister Hwang In-moo of the Ministry of National Defense; Mark Pieth, Former Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery; Mark Patton, Anti-corruption Counsel of the Boeing Company; Thaddeus Coakley, Director of legal compliance of Lockheed Martin; and Kang Sung-Goo of Transparency International Korea.

In his welcoming speech, DAPA Minister Chang Myoung-jin explained that the purpose of this conference is to share DAPA's strategy to create a culture of integrity and to promote the defense industry based on such a culture. He also stated, "I expect this conference to be an opportunity to reaffirm our willingness to practice integrity."

In his congratulatory speech, ACRC Chairman Sung Yung-hoon said that the establishment of a corruption prevention system in the defense industry is a top priority of the 4 Corruption Vaccines Project that the Government announced last January. The Chairman added, "The ACRC will make various efforts to improve the legal and institutional infrastructure to prevent corruption and enhance transparency in the defense industry and to promote business ethics in the related businesses."

Kang Sung-Goo of Transparency International Korea pointed out in his presentation that, "An analysis of 26 corruption cases that have occurred since the launch of DAPA in 2006 revealed that it took an average of 2.3 years to uncover a corruption case after its occurrence," and called for reinforcing the inspection function of DAPA and enhancing transparency in defense projects.

An official of DAPA said that DAPA will make continuous efforts to forge a culture of integrity in cooperation with the related organizations, establish a system to increase transparency in the defense industry by using the big data, and strengthen organizational expertise.