Seoul Metro's First Prime Minister's Award for Anti-Corruption Since Its Inception

Construction Company Achieves 1st Grade in Anti-Corruption Policy Evaluation for 2 Consecutive Years (Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission), Selected as Best Anti-Corruption Case (Seoul City)... First 2nd Grade in Integrity Evaluation in 2021 (Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission), Sets Goal to Advance to 'Best Grade' This Year... "Various Efforts to Prevent Conflicts of Interest? Focus on Strengthening Communication Through Direct Site Visits"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seoul Metro Corporation received the Prime Minister's Award on February 27 in celebration of Anti-Corruption Day, an honor given to public institutions that achieved excellent results in the Anti-Corruption Policy Evaluation conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission through improvements in integrity performance.

In addition, Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education, Small Enterprise and Market Service, and others also received awards.

In January this year, the Corporation achieved the highest grade, Grade 1, in the 2021 Anti-Corruption Policy Evaluation by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, receiving high marks for various integrity improvement efforts such as ▲improving operational systems for fair evaluation in selecting specific technologies ▲operating a pre-consultation system for proactive administration ▲management of re-employed retirees. This award is given as a form of recognition for these achievements.

Building on these consecutive successes, the Corporation has raised its target grade for the public institution integrity evaluation this year to the highest level, Grade 1, and is actively working to spread an anti-corruption culture throughout the organization.

To this end, the Corporation has planned to prioritize improving internal integrity, which had been relatively weak. In particular, internal investigations revealed that some organizational culture issues remain to be addressed, such as nepotism, abuse of power, lack of transparency in work processes, and insufficient accountability. As a countermeasure, the Corporation plans to expand on-site integrity communication.

In the first half of the year, the standing auditor will personally visit subordinate departments to conduct integrity education, hold regional ‘Integrity Improvement Meetings’ and monthly ‘Integrity Excellence Communication Forums’ for department integrity officers, and foster a consensus on integrity and spread the will for integrity through communication with departments managing corruption-prone areas and operational departments.

Starting in May this year, to clearly disseminate the purpose of the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act and reflect it in the Corporation’s work, a baseline will be established to enable immediate response in case of conflicts of interest. In June, a new ‘Conflict of Interest Reporting and Consultation Center’ will be launched on the website to activate a communication channel where anyone can report related matters.

Auditor Ahn Yeon-hwan of Seoul Metro Corporation said, “We will continue efforts to improve unreasonable systems and adopt a preventive consulting audit approach so that corruption cannot persist in the Seoul subway. We aim to achieve the highest grade in this year’s integrity evaluation and become a more trusted company.”

Since his appointment to Seoul Metro Corporation in December 2019, Auditor Ahn has played a leading role in improving integrity over the past two years, achieving remarkable results such as ▲two consecutive years of improvement in the public institution integrity evaluation hosted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (from Grade 4 to 3 to 2) ▲two consecutive years of Grade 1 in the Anti-Corruption Policy Evaluation ▲selection as the best institution for anti-corruption best practices by the city.

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