Corruption Perception Index 2017 (CPI 2017) Press Release Statement – Transparency International-Korea (TI-Korea)
This year should be the turning point in raising South Korea’s ranking on anti-corruption. The country’s transparency ranking dropped in TI’s CPI 2017 result fundamentally due to the scandal committed by Choi Soon-sil and Park Geun-hye.
In the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by Transparency International (TI) today, South Korea ranked 51st out of the 180 countries surveyed, with a score of 54 out of 100 points. The CPI 2016 for South Korea was the worst, in which the country ranked 52nd with 53 points since the corruption index started. It is quite disappointing as the results for 2017 did not improve as well. It should be noted that a 50-point score indicates that it is hard for a country to get rid of its corruption issues, according to Transparency International. Also, among OECD countries, South Korea ranked 29th out of 35 countries, showing no change from last year.
Transparency International’s CPI 2017 results include data in the past two years in which the whole nation agonized due to the corruption scandal committed by Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon-sil through highly-organized corrupt networking among officials and businesses. Out of the 13 CPI sources, 10 are used for South Korea which included the period from November 2015 to September 2017. It is a little comforting to learn that the score has slightly gone up since the establishment of the new government early last year.
The Corruption Perceptions Index was developed to investigate a country’s public sector corruption status in order to solicit public interest and promote solutions to corruption issues by publishing the annual CPI research results. The awful results of this year and last year show how the world experts perceive the Korean public sector’s corruption status. During the second half of 2016, the truth about Choi Soon-sil and Park Geun-hye’s corrupt alliance reveals how our country’s governance system is going to fall apart. The system is being abused and turned into a vehicle by some presidential aides for personal gains and by chaebols (conglomerates) to expand their unfair business practices. The appearance of the blacklist (that included names of activists and critics) during former president Park Geun-hye severely infringes on the freedom of thought and conscience, a situation comparable to 30 years ago in South Korea. This shocking event shows that it is not only Park Geun-hye but also Lee Myung-bak who abused his authority for personal gain. Lee is recently under investigation on suspicion of illegally receiving chaebol’s money.
As has been shown in many cases, the most significant corruption problem in our country lies in the sophisticated corrupt networking of former senior officials and other senior members of our society. To eradicate this corruption issue, we must put our energy together to establish new and effective governance and integrity system. Last year, the new government of Moon Jae-in had set as its national agenda the theme “Anti-corruption Reforms to Create a Clean Korea.” However, to solve the problem all stakeholders’ cooperation, including civil society, government, political parties, and business is necessary to establish an efficient governance system. The recently released Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman, Lee Jae-yong, and other similar cases have raised serious concerns for us. This case gives a clear signal that Korea will not become a clean nation especially when we pardon corrupt people and not punish them to the full extent of the law. In such situation, we should not expect better assessment results from the international community.
Today, Transparency International-Korea strongly urges the establishment of an anti-corruption policy strategy, hoping that 2018 will be a turning point for rebuilding the anti-corruption system that collapsed and promoting transparency based on the CPI 2017 results. To properly establish this strategy, aside from the Executive branch the National Assembly and the Judiciary should be actively involved.
1) The Korean Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC), in accordance with Article 6 of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, should act as an independent anti-corruption body.
2) It is essential to establish an agency with independent investigative authority to investigate high-ranking civil servants and senior officials who are alleged of committing corrupt activities. Also, the prosecution reform must be achieved to prevent prosecutors from abusing their prosecution powers.
3) Corrupt chaebol leaders and high-ranking officials must be punished accordingly so that the saying “One law for the rich and another for the poor” will be eradicated and justice will be served. Doing so will restore people’s trust in the nation’s judicial system.
4) We must strictly enforce the Prohibition of Improper Solicitation and Graft Act (Kim Young-ran Law) to achieve its efficacy as expected highly by the people.
5) To improve corporate governance and overcome corrupt practices, the corporate corruption prevention law should be established, and punitive damages system for corrupt companies should be introduced.
6) The Whistleblowers Protection Law’s scope should be expanded to ensure the protection of whistleblowers and to encourage more would-be whistleblowers to come forward.
7) Effective integrity education should be promoted to people in all walks of life in our society.
8) In line with the ‘Anti-corruption Action Strategy’ adopted at the G20 Summit, the collaboration among the public institutions, business sectors, and civil society organizations must be restored and promoted to achieve reliable governance integrity.
February 2, 2018
Transparency International-Korea Chapter
See more results HERE.