Establishment of a Dedicated Department at the Anti-Corruption Commission for Recovering Fraudulent Government Subsidies

6th Council on Daily Life Corruption Measures... Promoting Legislation for Strict Response to 'Public Institution Gapjil'

Lee Geon-ri, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (Photo by Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chae-seok] The government has decided to establish a dedicated department under the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission next month to operate the Public Finance Recovery System aimed at preventing public finance leakage.

On the 30th, the government held the 6th Council on Measures to Address Social Evils and made this decision, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced.

The council was conducted in writing as part of social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

During the meeting, the council discussed the implementation status of the Public Finance Recovery Act, the third comprehensive survey on public institution recruitment practices and measures to eradicate power abuse, and plans for joint inspections on fraudulent subsidy claims.

Since the enforcement of the "Public Finance Recovery Act" (Act on Prohibition of False Claims and Recovery of Unfair Benefits in Public Finance) in January, the government plans to establish the "Public Finance Recovery System Division" under the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission next month to oversee system operation and compliance monitoring.

The Public Finance Recovery System is designed to recover the full amount of unfair benefits when false or excessive claims are made for government subsidies or other public funds, and impose penalty surcharges up to five times the unfair benefits.

The government will share subsidy receipt information through linkage between integrated subsidy management systems across agencies to proactively respond to false or excessive claims. Joint inspections will be conducted to strictly address intentional fraudulent subsidy claims.

Additionally, the council reviewed the progress and achievements of nine key social evil eradication tasks the government is pursuing, including eliminating power abuse in the public sector, academic fraud, recruitment corruption in public institutions, and tax evasion.

Among these, the government plans to legislate principles to strictly handle public sector power abuse cases and transparently disclose them through amendments to the National Public Service Act.

Inspections related to power abuse will also be included during agency audits.

Furthermore, as cases of public institutions outsourcing recruitment tasks increase, the government will work to enhance the fairness of outsourced recruitment and conduct research to analyze the current status and issues of outsourced hiring.

Lee Geon-ri, Vice Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and chair of the council, stated, "The government will continue to identify and improve unfair issues in citizens' daily lives."

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