The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Prohibits Offering Money and Training to Public Officials Just Before Retirement

Jeon Hyun-hee, Chairperson of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] There is a prospect of putting a stop to the practice of some local governments sending civil servants nearing retirement on spousal training trips funded by the budget or giving expensive commemorative gifts such as golden keys.

On the 21st, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission recommended that each local government delete ordinances that provide domestic or overseas training or commemorative gifts for reasons such as long-term service or retirement by the end of this year.

The Commission also prohibited the budgeting for 'bulk rewards' for long-term employees and required the disclosure of budget execution status.

The Commission explained that although it issued a recommendation in 2015 not to provide excessive commemorative gifts with the budget, a check conducted last year showed that most local governments had insufficient compliance.

In fact, from 2016 to 2019, about 78 billion won in budget was executed in 234 local governments under the name of training and commemorative gift support for retirees and others.

An official from the Commission said, "Unlike the recommendation in 2015, this time we made local government ordinances delete related items altogether. We will ensure the recommendation is properly enforced by regularly disclosing implementation results."

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