South Korean Politics and Elections

Bribery Accounts for 25% of Public Officials’ Corruption

Korea Times, December 4, 2007

By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter

Taking bribes ranked second among the types of corruption committed by civil servants, accounting for 24.7 percent of the total, over the past five years.

The presidential Korea Independent Committee Against Corruption (KICAC) made public Tuesday major corruption examples of civil servants between January 2002 and June 2007, based on 446 cases handed over to investigative agencies.

The anti-corruption watchdog said one out of every four, or 110 of the 446 informants, accused public officials of receiving kickbacks.

The most frequent corruption type was budget overspending, including wasting taxpayers' money, which constituted 45.5 percent. Others include inappropriate practices at work, 22.2 percent, and neglect of duties, 4 percent.

The committee said more than half of the cases were reported to the police (27.6 percent) or prosecution (25.6 percent).

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) looked into 22 percent of the corruption allegations and central ministries took care of 19.5 percent. Regional governments examined 5 percent.

By informants' occupation, 51.2 percent were self-employed or salaried people, followed by civil servants at 25.1 percent.

``It is necessary to promote more active internal complaint-filing by civil servants,'' the commission said in a statement.

Corruption was most rampant in Seoul, accounting for 31.5 percent of all cases; followed by Gyeonggi Province, 16.9 percent; and Busan, 6.1 percent.

Since it was launched on Jan. 25, 2002, the KICAC has supervised nationwide anti-corruption campaigns pursuant to the Anticorruption Act of Korea enacted on July 24, 2001.

Anti-corruption has become a top national agenda item since former President Kim Dae-jung took office in 1998 in the midst of the Asian financial crisis.

The public sector's transparency score has inched up in the past year, but transparency levels as perceived by Koreans and foreigners are still not satisfactory in spite of continuous, comprehensive government reform.

The government aims to rank within the 30 most transparent countries by 2010 in the annual worldwide evaluation conducted by Transparency International (TI). TI is an international nongovernmental organization committed to fighting corruption.

kys@koreatimes.co.kr

Assembly Approves Jeon’s Reappointment

Korea Times, November 7, 2007

By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

The National Assembly Wednesday approved a motion on President Roh Moo-hyun's reappointment of Jeon Yun-churl as chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI).

A total of 171 lawmakers voted for the motion, while 18 others objected to it.

The vote followed a confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

As a result, Jeon, who has served as the country's chief auditor since 2003, will stay in office until June 2009 when he reaches his retirement age.

After passing the state-run civil service examination in 1966, Jeon began his bureaucratic career at the Economic Planning Board, the predecessor of the Ministry of Finance and Economy.

He served as chief of the Fair Trade Commission between 2000 and 2002 and also served as vice prime minister and minister of finance and economy.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr