ACRC Prohibits Special Promotion of Those Who Were Punished for Accepting Bribe, Sexual Violence, and Recruitment Irregularities

- The commission conducted a corruption risk assessment on 1,224 bylaws of 13 public organizations in the educational and cultural sectors and made 82 recommendations -

(7th July 2021, ACRC)

In the future, employees of public organizations will be excluded from special promotion if they have been punished for accepting bribe, sexual violence and recruitment irregularities. Also, managers in department head position or higher will not be able to enjoy the mitigation of disciplinary measures even if they have award(acknowledgement) given by the head of the public office.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (Chairperson: Jeon Hyun-Heui, ACRC) carried out corruption risk assessment of 1,224 corporate bylaws of public agencies in the educational and cultural sectors, including Korea Tourism Organization, Korean Institute for Healthy Family, and recommended 82 areas for improvement and 29 tasks in 3 categories.

According to major findings, some organizations had bylaws allowing special promotion of those who greatly contributed to the development of the organizations even after disciplinary measures were taken for accepting bribe, embezzlement of public funds, sexual violence, recruitment irregularities, and so on.

Some organizations also had unclear and vague rules. For instance, there were organizations that 1) did not specify that ‘managerial positions from heads of departments or above’ are excluded from mitigation of disciplinary measures considering previous awards (accomplishment) granted by the head of such organization; 2) did not specify that ‘wrongfully using authority vested in a public office (so-called gapjil)’ is a misconduct for which mitigation of discipline is not applicable; or 3) allowed private agreements ‘when it is inevitable and the CEO acknowledges that they are needed.’

The ACRC recommended to improve the rules, so that those who have been punished for accepting bribe, sexual violence, or recruitment irregularities shall be excluded from special promotion.

It also recommended organizations to exclude ‘managerial positions from heads of departments or above’ from mitigation of discipline considering previous awards (accomplishment) granted by the head of organization, and to specify that ‘wrongful use of authority vested in a public office’ is a misconduct for which mitigation of discipline is not applicable.

Moreover, it requested organizations to make the reasons for private agreement clear and specific to prevent responsible people from abusing their discretionary power through arbitrary interpretation in agreement closing processes.

Aside from this, for those organizations that did not specify the duration of employment notice in the their bylaws, the commission recommended them to set a minimum duration of employment notice to ensure fair and open competition in the recruitment process and to provide equal employment opportunity.

The ACRC also recommended organizations to ban private contracts for two years with the companies which hired former employees of such organizations in executive positions in order to prevent preferential treatment.

The ACRC has conducted a full investigation of corporate bylaws of 495 public agencies since last year. Last year, the commission reviewed bylaws of 187 agencies in seven areas, including the energy, airport and port sectors, and made 1,793 recommendations. This year, it looks into bylaws of 99 quasi-government agencies in seven sectors by beginning with bylaw review of 20 public organizations in the labor and welfare sectors.

Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui of the ACRC said, “the commission will make fair and transparent society by actively identifying and improving elements in the bylaws of public agencies that can cause corruption, such as conflict of interest, or excessive use of discretionary power.

Attachment 1		Corruption risk Assessment System

□ Overview

○ A preventive corruption control tool that analyzes corruption risk factors in a systematic manner from the drafting stage of statutes and systems and eliminate and improve them in advance.

* (Legal basis) ACRC Law Article 28, Enforcement Decree of the law Article 30-32

□ Assessment subjects

○ Legislation, administrative rules, local statutes, internal rules of public institutions (bylaws, etc.)

* With the revision of the ACRC Act in Oct. 2019, the ACRC can assess internal regulations of public offices with its own authority.

□ Assessment criteria

○ Assess with 12 criteria in four assessment areas — compliance, execution, administrative process, corruption control

Assessment areas		Assessment criteria
Compliance	Assess possibility of corruption-causing factors to be working from the perspective of users of administration service	① Reasonability of compliance burden
		② Appropriateness of regulatory rules
		③ Possibility of special treatment
Execution	Assess the possibility of having corruption-causing factors from the perspective of suppliers of administration service	④ Specificity and objectivity of discretionary regulations
		⑤ Transparency and responsibility of consignment and delegation
		⑥ Possibility of financial leakage
Administrative Process	Assess probability of corruption caused by administrative procedures, not from the perspectives of users and suppliers	⑦ Easy accessibility
		⑧ Openness
		⑨ Predictability
Corruption Control	Assess whether there are risk of personal interest, passive administration, and corruption-control tools across the entire administration process	⑩ Possibility of conflict of interest
		⑪ Systemic characteristics of corruption-prevention tools
		⑫ Possibility of passive administration service

□ Current status of assessment

○ (Enactment and revision of laws) When administrative organizations enact and revise laws, the ACRC assesses corruption-causing factors in the laws before the review of Ministry of Government Legislation and recommends improvement to the relevant organizations

* In 2020, the ACRC reviewed 1,999 laws enacted or revised, and made 347 recommendations for 169 laws.

○ (Current laws, etc.) The ACRC selects current social issues including corruption cases as main agenda, assesses corruption-causing factors in laws, regulations and systems, and makes recommendations for improvement.