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Mar. 29  2024
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Drastic Surgery Requested on Public Officials' Property Register System

To relieve the citizen's mistrust toward the public officials in connection with their money making tactics, and to transform the property register system from a meaningless annual occasion into an effective protective measure against corruption, the National Assembly is urgently requested to set out to reform the current Public Officials' Code of Ethics.




translated by J. Lee ( elmywind@dreamwiz.com)

The recent disclosure of the annual changes in the personal assets of high-level officials revealed critical limitations of the current public officials' property register system in fulfilling its ultimate goal of verifying the lawfulness of their asset gaining process, and thus deterring corruption among public servants. A radical reform of the current register system is necessary, to clear the citizens' doubt about the legitimacy of the public officials' accrued assets, and to remedy various problems highlighted through the disclosure. In the same context, the National Assembly needs to push ahead with the revision of the Public Officials' Code of Ethics.


Due to the economic downturn last year, the average household economy suffered accumulating debts. In contrast, 79% of high-ranking public officials enjoyed a boost in their wealth. Of course, what matters here is not the increase of assets itself, but the means that made it possible. However, considering last year's corruption scandals involving top-ranking officials such as ministers and presidential secretaries, it is highly suspected that the upward trend was bolstered by unjust measures and abuses of power. Therefore, for more transparency, the current system must be upgraded by making it an obligation for officials to report not only the net change in the assets, but their income resources and circumstances of capital gains as well. Also, the Public Officials Ethics Committee should be given a mandate to inspect the lawfulness and legitimacy of high-level officials' property expanding process.


The right to refuse to report given to the parents and children of public officials must be abolished. In the recent disclosure, lineal ascendants and descendants of as many as 33 officials didn't submit their financial particulars. Among these are the second son of President Kim Dae-jung and parents and children of high-profile government officials including the chairman of the Board of Inspection and Audit and the director of the office of National Tax Service.

The investigation of the Lee Young-ho gate last year revealed that close relatives of high-ranking public officials such as the son of the President and the brother of the director of the Public Prosecutions were the main targets of bribery activities. Under these circumstances, the provision that allows the parents and children of the public officials to refuse to yield their financial statements severely damages the effectiveness of the current public officials' property register system, and therefore must be scrapped. For those who didn't participate in the recent disclosure, it would be wise to accept the critical public opinion against them and to reveal their financial particulars and income resources explicitly.


Another major drawback is that the particulars of stock transactions are left out from the list of items to be reported. Stock investment by public officials has been creating problems for years. As revealed in the Youn Tae-sik scandal last year, stocks were a commonly used instrument to lobby ranking figures. With the limited numbers of working-level personnel at the committee to probe the submitted financial statements, however, it is practically impossible to detect irregularities in their stock trading. To remedy this problem, the particulars of stock transactions reported to the government's Ethics Committee must be disclosed to the public, and placed under the inspection of outside watchdogs like civic groups.


The Civil Action for the Enactment of the Anti-Corruption Law formulated a revised bill of the Public Officials' Code of Ethics, and filed a legislative petition for the law. Lawmakers also proposed a similar version of the revised bill, which is pending at the Committee of Government Administration and Home Affairs at the National Assembly. However, the bill has not yet been deliberated upon.

To relieve the citizen's mistrust toward the public officials in connection with their money making tactics, and to transform the property register system from a meaningless annual occasion into an effective protective measure against corruption, the National Assembly is urgently requested to set out to reform the current Public Officials' Code of Ethics.

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