[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province achieved a high rating of Grade 2 in the '2021 Public Institution Integrity Evaluation' conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. This marks a rise of one grade from Grade 3 last year.
Gyeonggi Province explained that after receiving Grade 3 in last year's evaluation, it implemented improvement measures and focused training in vulnerable areas, resulting in an increase of one grade internally and two grades externally, achieving an overall Grade 2.
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission annually evaluates the integrity levels and corruption factors of over 700 public institutions nationwide, including central government ministries and local governments, and announces the results on the 'Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Day' (December 9).
With this evaluation, the province reclaimed the high-grade status within a year, proving itself as a local government maintaining one of the highest levels of integrity nationwide.
The province cited factors for being selected as an excellent institution, including the 'Integrity Happy Call Regular Inspection,' which strengthened post-management through consultations on insufficient departments and improvement plans regarding various civil complaint processes and results such as construction and service management, subsidy support, and nonprofit organization licensing, as well as blocking fraudulent acts through the operation of the 'Public Interest Reporting Hotline.'
Furthermore, despite the COVID-19 situation, the province promoted measures to eradicate power abuse, conducted customized integrity education for high-ranking officials (57 people) and all employees (1,900 people), operated the 'Power Abuse Prevention Day,' obtained pledges to participate in power abuse eradication, and issued power abuse alerts, all of which raised awareness and integrity consciousness among all employees, serving as grounds for the grade improvement.
In particular, the province reported that inducing voluntary self-management of senior officials through integrity evaluations of high-ranking officials (206 people at Grade 4 or above) and conducting integrity activity participation index evaluations for all departments positively influenced this evaluation.
Hong Seong-deok, the province’s investigation officer, emphasized, "Achieving a high integrity grade is the result of the collective efforts of all Gyeonggi Province public officials," adding, "We will analyze the integrity measurement results and implement measures to address shortcomings to continue realizing a highly transparent public service society next year."
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