Standardizing Procedures under the Acting Mayor System
Establishing the "Integrity Traffic Light" Corruption Management System
On December 23, Changwon Special City achieved the highest 'Level 1' rating in the 2025 Comprehensive Integrity Assessment of public institutions, conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.
The city received consistently high scores across all indicators, including perceived integrity and integrity efforts, officially recognizing its top-tier integrity and anti-corruption policy performance nationwide.
The 'Level 1 Comprehensive Integrity' rating is the highest grade awarded by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission to public institutions with the lowest levels of corruption experience and perception, and the most outstanding efforts to improve integrity. This demonstrates that Changwon Special City serves as a model for anti-corruption and integrity administration in both its systems and organizational culture.
Even though anti-corruption policy momentum and the spread of integrity culture often weaken during a vacancy in the head of a local government, Changwon Special City, under the leadership of the acting mayor, strengthened its procedures and systems to block corruption-prone areas. Based on this, the city designed and operated a corruption risk management system involving all employees, overcoming challenges and raising its integrity standards to a new level.
The city established a business management framework by standardizing procedures for corruption-prone areas, led by each business department.
First, for large-scale projects, the city has held regular executive meetings since March to proactively manage risks by identifying and discussing potential causes of corruption in advance. In September, the city also developed a major public facility management system and standardized the public facility construction process to prevent issues such as vacancies after completion from recurring.
In the area of accounting and contracts, the city improved the process for selecting preliminary evaluation committee members for negotiated contracts. In the culture and arts sector, it conducted a comprehensive overhaul of private subsidy projects. For social welfare, a dedicated team was established to undertake a major restructuring of the private subsidy management system, thereby strengthening the structural foundation for managing corruption risks.
These procedural and system improvements were pursued even more rigorously under the acting mayor system, functioning as sustainable measures such as standardized procedures and system enhancements.
In March of this year, the city developed and introduced its own system, the "Integrity Traffic Light," to diagnose and evaluate internal integrity levels tailored to the city's circumstances. After a pilot run, it was fully implemented this year. The "Integrity Traffic Light" scores and evaluates integrity practices and corruption status across all 258 departments, including the main office, district offices, and business offices, and publicly discloses the results using a three-color traffic light system (green, yellow, red) for feedback and transparency.
The results of the Integrity Traffic Light for each institution and department are regularly disclosed to division heads and all employees, and are shared as a collective responsibility among executives through executive meetings and the 'Integrity Leaders Group.' As a result, voluntary improvement activities have spread throughout departments, such as publishing integrity columns by district heads and expanding internal integrity training, fostering a culture of integrity across the entire organization.
Jang Geumyong, Acting Mayor of Changwon Special City, stated, "This Level 1 comprehensive integrity rating was made possible because, even in the unprecedented absence of a mayor, each department meticulously refined procedures and systems, and every public servant participated in anti-corruption initiatives until the end. We will continue to ensure that our systems guarantee a clean Changwon, and that our employees work together to maintain an 'unwavering city of integrity.'
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