MOE, MOCT Deemed Most Corrupt

According to a survey executed by the Korean Independent Commission Against Corruption (KICAC) on the work integrity of 325 major government administrations and local self-governments, 62 offices, including the Ministry of Information and Communication, Small and Medium Business Association, and the Korean Foundation of Polytechnic Colleges, were selected as “clean organizations.”

The average integrity level of public offices was 8.68 (based on a scale of 10), which is slightly higher than last year’s 8.38.

KICAC announced as such in its “2005 Integrity Assessment Results on Public Offices” on December 9.

According to the report, the Ministry of Education (8.29), the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (8.40), and the Ministry of Environment (8.47) had low integrity levels compared to other ministries.

Among governmental agencies, the Korea Coast Guard (7.44), the Public Prosecutor’s Office (8.37), and the National Tax Service (8.42) received low grades, and among public corporations, Seoul Metro (7.11), Seoul Highway Corporation (7.65), and the Korean Rail Network Authority (7.86) received low grades.

KICAC commissioned survey groups to conduct a phone survey from August 25 to October 27 on 3,000 civil servants and 83,900 citizens who experienced service in 325 ministries, public corporations and local self-governments.

Clean organizations (those that received a rating greater than 9 out of 10) amounted to 62, a great increase from last year’s 11. Last year’s 11 clean organizations were exempted from this year’s evaluations.

Hyung-June Park lovesong@donga.com