Eighty nine percent of Korean citizens support the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act

Supporters of the Act increased compared to November 2016

September 25, 2017

Korea Institute of Public Administration

The Republic of Korea

More citizens, public officials and education sector support the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act compared to last year when the Act took effect, according to a Perception Survey on the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act conducted from August 18, 2017 to September 5, 2017 by Korea Research commissioned by the Korea Institute of Public Administration (KIPA).

For the question of “Do you agree with the enactment of the Improper Solicitation ? ”, 89.2% of general citizens, 95.0% of public officials, 95.0% of heads and employees of public service-related institutions, and 88.2% of faculty members answered “moderately” or “ strongly” agree with the law, which was 3.9%, 7.9%, 2.0% , and 2.7% respectively up from the last year’s survey.

Meanwhile, among the journalists surveyed, 62.3% agreed with the law, which was 5.2% down compared to last year.

As for general restaurant business* operators and agriculture, livestock, fishery and floriculture business and other affected businesses by the Act, 61.2% responded that they agreed with the enactment of the Act.

* General restaurant business under the Enforcement Decree of Food Sanitation Act refers to business of cooking and selling foods, where drinking accompanied with meals is allowed

<Respondents supporting the law>

(Unit: %)

When it comes to “the limits of KRW 30,000, KRW 50,000, and KRW 100,000” for a gift, a meal, and a congratulatory/condolence money gift, respectively, most of the respondents said the current limit is appropriate. Journalists and business operators in the affected industries, however, said the ceilings are too low.

For the KRW 30,000 limit for a meal, 58.3% of general citizens, 76.0% of people in the public sector, and 66.3% of people in the education sector said the ceiling is appropriate, while 59.8% of journalists and 51.7% of general restaurant business operators said it is too low.

<Appropriateness of KRW 30,000 ceiling for a meal>

(Unit: %)

When it come to the KRW 50,000 ceiling for a gift, 61.4% of general citizens, 67.0% of people in the public sector, and 61.1% of people in the education sector said the ceiling is appropriate, while 53.9% of journalists and 59.3% of agriculture, livestock, fishery and floriculture business operators said it is too low.

<Appropriateness of 50,000 ceiling for a gift >

(Unit: %)

As for the ceiling for congratulatory/condolence money of KRW 100,000, meanwhile, many of the respondents answered the ceiling is appropriate.

<Appropriateness of KRW 100,000 ceiling for congratulatory/condolence money>

(Unit: %)

For the question of “Do you believe that the exception to the gift limit of KRW 50,000 should be applied to agriculture, livestock, and fishery products?”, 45.1%, 43.2%, 29.7%, 36.0% of general citizens, public officials, heads and employees of public institutions, and faculty members, respectively, said “yes”, while 55.4% of journalists and 68.2% of the people in the affected businesses did, showing journalists and affected businesses are more strongly agree with the exception for agriculture, livestock and fishery products.

<Exception for the gift limit of KRW 50,000 for agriculture, livestock, and fishery products>

(Unit: %)

The survey was the second of its kind to see public perception on the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, following the one in November 2016 which was conducted by the KIPA, and the sample survey subject this year was 3,010.

President Jung Yoon-Soo of the KIPA said, “I expect that this survey will be useful policy data to assess achievements of the one year of implementing the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act and to identify challenges for improvement. The Korean government should make its efforts not only for the law to take root properly, meeting Korean people’s aspiration for a fair and trustworthy government, but also to come up with measures to support those who suffered unintended damages by the law while enforcing the law.