[Square] The Path to Becoming a 'Clean and Advanced Nation'

Lee Geon-ri, Vice Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

How does the international community perceive our country? Rapid economic growth summarized by the Miracle on the Han River, an economic powerhouse ranked 12th in the world by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (as of last year, according to the International Monetary Fund), a cultural powerhouse with Hallyu stars such as BTS and Psy, and a democracy that peacefully resolved a political scandal. All of these are valuable achievements made possible by the government and the people working together as one.

Despite such visible progress, the evaluation results of our country's anti-corruption and integrity levels are disappointing. Transparency International (TI) has been publishing the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) annually since 1995, measuring the level of corruption in the public and political sectors of countries through perception surveys of businesspeople and experts.

According to the "2019 Country CPI" released on the 23rd of last month, South Korea scored 59 out of 100 points, ranking 39th among 180 countries worldwide. Compared to the previous year, the score increased by 2 points and the rank rose by 6 places, marking the highest score since the CPI measurement began in 1995. In last year's evaluation by the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building (ERCAS), which conducted the Public Integrity Index (IPI), South Korea ranked 23rd out of 109 countries and was first in Asia.

Corruption destroys trust among members and distorts decision-making and resource allocation. Due to corruption, national policies are not decided rationally, and companies focus more on informal relationships with bureaucrats than on technological development. As research shows that corruption levels directly affect a country's investment decisions and economic growth rates, addressing corruption should be considered a strategic task that the nation must approach with full effort.

The Moon Jae-in administration restored the "Anti-Corruption Policy Council," which had been suspended since 2008. Through the "Integrity Society Public-Private Council," it realized an anti-corruption policy process in which the public can participate substantively. It also established a five-year comprehensive anti-corruption plan to build a policy foundation for implementing national-level anti-corruption policies.

The government is consistently promoting a series of institutional reforms at the whole-of-government level to address long-standing corruption issues such as recruitment irregularities and power abuse in public institutions, and accounting fraud in private kindergartens, while strengthening protection for internal whistleblowers. These efforts have laid the groundwork for corruption-related evaluations such as the CPI to improve for three consecutive years since the Moon Jae-in administration took office.

There is still a long way to go. Although the CPI score improved by 6 points and the rank by 13 places over the past three years since the Moon Jae-in administration began, it remains at 27th among 36 OECD countries, which is somewhat disappointing. Now is not the time to be satisfied with today's achievements but a time for all of us to tighten our shoelaces once again and run toward the future of becoming a world-class integrity nation.

Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission plans to implement various anti-corruption policies to realize the national innovation goal of "entering the top 20 integrity advanced countries by 2022." First, it will focus on policies that meet the public's strong desire to enhance fairness in society. The "Anti-Corruption Policy Council" will be reorganized into the "Fair Society Anti-Corruption Policy Council." Institutionalized unfair factors embedded in recruitment and academic affairs will also be improved. Legislation to prevent conflicts of interest will be pursued to establish fairer standards for the performance of duties in the public service, including high-ranking officials.

Furthermore, the "Public Finance Recovery Act," which will be enforced starting this year, will be strictly applied to fundamentally reform the mistaken perception and practice that "government money is blind money." Preparations for the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) to be held in Seoul this June will be carried out without delay to enhance the country's brand status.

It is difficult to become an integrity advanced country with short-term efforts. The government will do its best to eliminate the remaining corruption and unfair elements in our society through "uninterrupted anti-corruption reform," so that the values of integrity and fairness can take root throughout society.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.