Revised Public Officials' Code of Conduct to Take Effect in May: "Post-Reporting External Lectures Allowed"

Revised Code of Conduct for Public Officials and Local Council Members Passed at Cabinet Meeting
Mandatory Reporting Only for Paid External Lectures...Post-Reporting Allowed
Anti-Corruption Commission Expects to Block Abuse of External Lectures as a Means for Bribery

Eunjung Park, Chairperson of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. / Photo by Honam Moon munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] From now on, public officials and local council members only need to report to their affiliated institution heads or local council chairs when receiving honoraria for lectures, speeches, or contributions to external organizations. Additionally, post-reporting within 10 days after the lecture is also permitted.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced on the 1st that at the 16th Cabinet meeting held on the 31st of last month, presided over by President Moon Jae-in, amendments to the Code of Conduct for Public Officials and the Code of Conduct for Local Council Members containing these provisions were approved and will be enforced starting from the 27th of next month.

This amendment to the Code of Conduct was promoted to avoid conflicts between higher and lower laws regarding the same external lecture provisions, following the amendment of the higher law, the Act on the Prohibition of Improper Solicitation and Graft (Improper Solicitation Act). The Improper Solicitation Act was amended last October to include the same content.

According to the newly amended Code of Conduct for Public Officials and Local Council Members, public officials and local council members will be required to report only external lectures, etc., for which they receive honoraria. If no honorarium is received, reporting is not necessary.

The current Code of Conduct requires prior reporting of all external lectures except in exceptional cases, but the amended code allows both prior reporting and post-reporting within 10 days.

However, if the head of the affiliated institution or the chairperson judges that the reported external lecture may undermine the fairness of official duties, they may impose restrictions. The upper limit of honoraria remains the same as the current standard.

Public officials, local council members, and executives and employees of public-related organizations can receive up to 400,000 KRW per hour, and teaching staff can receive up to 1,000,000 KRW per hour.

Im Yoonju, Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau at the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, said, "This amendment to the Code of Conduct is a meaningful change in that it prevents external lectures from being misused as an indirect means of receiving improper benefits and allows institutions at all levels to operate the external lecture reporting system more flexibly."

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