Punishment of major acts of corruption

We commit to impose stronger crackdown and punishment on five major acts of corruption (bribery, influence-peddling, improper solicitation, embezzlement, and breach of trust) and proactively recover proceeds of such crimes. We also commit to apply zero-tolerance to public officials committing corruption.

Completion Status:
Fulfilled

Commitment filtering:

Specific: ✔ yes

This commitment is specific as it aims to reinforce the crackdown and punishment for the five major crimes conducted by public officials, including bribery, embezzlement and breach of trust, and to reinforce the recovery of illicit profits.

Measurable: ✔ yes

We can measure whether specific efforts have been introduced to strengthen the punishment of crimes by public official and whether there is zero-tolerance to public officials committing corruption.

Last updated: 30 November 2020
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Evaluation:

In 2019, the Department of Justice prioritised five major acts of corruption: bribery, influence-peddling, improper solicitation, embezzlement and breach of trust. Since then, 709 people (including 54 public servants) were indicted and 179 people (including 20 public servants) were imprisoned.1 In addition, the Public Finance Recovery Act, which came into force on 1 January 2020, aims to recover illegitimate profits derived from false claims for public funds (subsidies, compensation and contributions), which amount to an estimated KRW 214 trillion (about US$180 billion or 11 per cent of annual GDP).2

Sources:
  1. Ministry of Justice, Legal Yearbook, p. 232
    2019
    ↩
  2. OECD, OECD Economic Surveys, https://www.oecd.org/economy/surveys/korea-2020-OECD-economic-survey-overview.pdf#page=40&zoom=100,82,121
    2020
    ↩