Gwangju City Receives 'Excellent' Rating for Two Consecutive Years in Public Institution Anti-Corruption Policy Evaluation

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 26th that it received a Grade 2 in the ‘2020 Public Institution Anti-Corruption Policy Evaluation’ conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, being selected as an ‘Excellent Institution’ for the second consecutive year.

The anti-corruption policy evaluation is conducted annually by the Commission since 2002, assessing the anti-corruption policy efforts and effectiveness of public institutions alongside integrity measurement. It evaluates the anti-corruption policies of 263 institutions, including central government ministries, local governments, city and provincial education offices, and public-related organizations, in five grades (Grade 1 to 5).

The evaluation period covers from November 2019 to October of the previous year, and the evaluation criteria are the implementation performance of 17 indicators across four areas: planning, execution efforts, outcomes, and dissemination of anti-corruption policies.

In this evaluation, Gwangju actively promoted anti-corruption policies such as solidifying the operation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials and on-site integrity consulting for construction projects, achieving perfect scores in the ‘Corruption Risk System Operation’ and ‘Efforts to Spread Anti-Corruption Policies’ categories, and also received excellent evaluations in the establishment of systems for corruption prevention.

In particular, the city received high praise for the mayor’s direct participation in integrity campaigns and the operation of the ‘General TF for Enhancing Integrity and Innovation,’ demonstrating leadership by senior officials and strong policy promotion efforts.

The anti-corruption measurement methods conducted annually by the Commission consist of two parts: ‘Integrity Measurement’ through surveys and ‘Anti-Corruption Policy Evaluation’ where an external expert evaluation team inspects each institution’s policy implementation.

Although Gwangju’s integrity measurement results announced at the end of last year were low, the city received an excellent evaluation in this anti-corruption policy evaluation despite the deduction factors, and plans to make various efforts this year to ensure that anti-corruption policies lead to improved integrity.

As part of this, the city previously commissioned a survey to a specialized agency to diagnose the causes of the decline in integrity and has promptly applied for integrity consulting from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.

Lee Gap-jae, Chairperson of the City Audit Committee, said, “The selection as an excellent institution in this anti-corruption policy evaluation is the result of all public officials under the city working together through stronger anti-corruption policy promotion.” He added, “We will take this opportunity to enhance administrative trust and strive to fundamentally eliminate factors causing corruption throughout city administration, making this year one to further solidify the foundation of Integrity Gwangju.”