Gwangju Innovation Promotion Committee Recommends Innovation Plan for 'Definite Change, Clean Gwangju'

15th Innovation Task Confirmed to Enhance Integrity

Jung Jeong-min, Chairman of the Gwangju Innovation Promotion Committee, is announcing the '15th Innovation Proposal Recommendation' for a Clean Gwangju on the afternoon of the 18th at the briefing room on the 5th floor of City Hall. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The Gwangju Innovation Promotion Committee (Chairman Ju Jeong-min), directly under the Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Innovation Promotion Committee’), held its 22nd plenary meeting on the 18th and decided to finalize the 15th innovation tasks and recommend them to Gwangju City.

This innovation plan was prepared after the Innovation Promotion Committee closely analyzed the recent integrity measurement results announced by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and decided on December 18 last year to form a Special Committee for Improving Integrity Culture to leap forward as a more trusted Gwangju by citizens and as the number one city for integrity in Gwangju. It was prepared through four meetings.

The main contents include 28 innovation tasks under three basic directions: ▲ strengthening fairness and reliability of Gwangju City’s subsidy projects ▲ creating a new work environment through personnel and organizational culture improvement ▲ institutional improvements for establishing and spreading an integrity culture.

▲ Strengthening fairness and reliability of Gwangju City’s subsidy projects involves clearly distinguishing between city direct projects and subsidy projects from budget allocation, and enhancing accountability by requiring subsidy project operators to submit a business plan with goals and a self-assessment checklist for performance measurement.

It also includes strengthening preventive audits, mandating education for subsidy project operators and responsible public officials, operating a citizen consulting group, and sending step-by-step text messages for subsidy project operators to prevent corruption through communication.

▲ Creating a new work environment through personnel and organizational culture improvement includes conducting multi-faceted evaluations for public officials above a certain rank, separating the work evaluation team and personnel team, excluding placement of promotion candidates in preferred departments such as personnel departments, balanced personnel allocation by department, and public disclosure of individual rankings in work performance evaluations at the department level to improve the personnel culture within the organization.

Integrity evaluations for senior public officials will be conducted, and eradication measures to prevent abuse of power and unfair work instructions will be established, with specific standards and case presentations to improve organizational culture.

▲ Institutional improvements for establishing and spreading an integrity culture include establishing an integrity happy call system to listen to inconveniences from external integrity measurement targets such as contracts and subsidies, thereby establishing an integrity culture.

Promotion of the public service corruption and irregularity reporting system and enhancing accessibility will foster a shared integrity culture.

Measures to facilitate communication among internal members of the public service will be devised, and a mentee-mentoring system will be introduced to help new (transferred) employees adapt to the organization, building an empathetic and communicative organizational culture.

Integrity culture will be spread and a sense of ownership fostered through awards for departments and public officials excelling in integrity.

Ju Jeong-min, Chairman of the Gwangju Innovation Promotion Committee, said, “Integrity is a fundamental virtue of public officials and a core city governance value for sustainable innovation. Through this recommendation, Gwangju City will promote policies that meet citizens’ expectations and check the progress to establish a trusted public service culture both internally and externally.” He added, “We will also recommend this to public institutions under Gwangju City and autonomous districts to ensure that integrity as a city governance value takes root.”

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