Participant Autonomy 21: "Gwangju, Lowest in Integrity, Must Make Bone-Cutting Innovation Efforts"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] The Gwangju Metropolitan City received the lowest grade, level 5, for the second consecutive year in the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission's integrity survey, prompting civic groups to call for "painstaking administrative innovation efforts."

Participation and Autonomy 21 stated in a press release on the 11th, "Level 5 is the lowest integrity grade, meaning the highest degree of corruption and malpractice," adding, "In a city of the May 18 Democratic Uprising, even level 1 would be insufficient; this is a catastrophic stain on the image of Gwangju as a city of democracy and human rights."

The group pointed out, "Integrity is a virtue attainable only when unfairness and privilege are corrected," and emphasized, "Being ranked last in integrity means that Gwangju's administration is rife with unfairness, privilege, and rule-breaking."

They claimed, "In fact, such results were somewhat expected," and "Gwangju City has consistently ignored the critical voices of civic groups demanding administrative innovation and has responded only with excuses."

They also explained that transparency and accountability in administrative processes are significantly low.

The group highlighted, "For example, in the handling of the Second Ring Road case, which was revealed through court rulings to be an unfair preferential contract, the court detailed the bribes received by Gwangju city officials and exposed signs of organized involvement by public servants," adding, "However, Gwangju City has neither conducted additional and specific investigations into the officials' corruption nor properly attempted to rectify the wrongful fraudulent contract that wastes citizens' tax money."

They continued, "Lenient punishments for corrupt officials, nondisclosure of punishment outcomes, negligence and incompetence of the Audit Committee?which should be a bastion for transparency in the public service?as seen in the case of the Green Car Promotion Agency, and lenient audits are all conditions contributing to the lowest integrity ranking," and pointed out, "Information that citizens want to see is blocked, while only information officials want to show is abundant, which is also problematic."

They urged, "Mayor Lee Yong-seop should not stop at abstract apologies but present a systematic and concrete plan to fundamentally innovate Gwangju's administrative system, which has reached a state where it is unclear where to start."

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