One Year Since the Enforcement of the Public Finance Recovery Act... 45.3 Billion KRW Recovered from Fraudulent Claims

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] It has been revealed that 45.3 billion KRW of fraudulent claims were recovered during the first year of enforcement of the Public Finance Recovery Act, which fully recovers the illicit gains when public financial payments are wrongfully claimed.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) announced this on the 18th, releasing data summarizing the achievements over the four years since the government’s launch.

The Public Finance Recovery Act, enacted in January last year, stipulates that if approximately 252 trillion KRW in public financial payments such as various subsidies, compensations, and grants are wrongfully claimed, the illicit gains must be fully recovered, and penalties of up to five times the amount can be imposed.

To fundamentally prevent the disclosure of whistleblowers’ identities, the ACRC introduced a 'non-face-to-face proxy reporting' system. It strengthened criminal penalties for violations of confidentiality obligations or retaliatory actions against whistleblowers and raised the reward limit from 2 billion KRW to 3 billion KRW. Over the past four years, 830 protection requests were received, with 696 processed, and a total of approximately 19.4 billion KRW in rewards and incentives paid to whistleblowers.

Additionally, the ACRC has established and operates the 'Integrity Portal Corruption and Public Interest Reporting' system, allowing online reporting of corruption and public interest violations to public institutions. At the time of the government’s launch, there were 284 laws subject to public interest reporting, but last year, about 180 important laws closely related to daily life, such as the 'Sexual Violence Punishment Act' and the 'Child Abuse Punishment Act,' were added. This year, four laws related to education and labor fields, including the 'Labor Standards Act,' 'Private School Act,' 'Elementary and Secondary Education Act,' and 'Higher Education Act,' were added. The total number of applicable laws has reached 471. Along with these institutional changes, public reports have also increased. Over the past four years, a total of 22,042 reports were received by the ACRC. Among them, 10,947 reports (49.7%) were forwarded to investigative and investigative agencies, contributing to the detection of corruption and public interest violations.

Kim Giseon, Director of the ACRC’s Review and Protection Bureau, said, "Over the past four years, the active reporting by citizens who desire a society free of corruption and privilege has made society more transparent and contributed to the rise in national integrity." He added, "We will continue to actively operate the reporting review, whistleblower protection and reward, and public finance corruption recovery systems together with the public."