Education, welfare ministries rank low on transparency list

The Ministry of Education and the Welfare Ministry were found to be the most corrupt among government agencies in the annual integrity scale, the state-run anticorruption watchdog said Wednesday.

According to the Anticorruption and Civil Rights Commission, the Welfare Ministry scored the lowest among “type 1” government agencies with 2,000 or more employees while the Education Ministry finished at the bottom among “type 2” organizations that employ less than 2,000 people.

The annual scales combine surveys of 57,000 government officials and 167,000 people who have filed complaints to government organizations, along with policy evaluations of 21,000 members of the related civic organizations, scholars and citizens.

Officials pooled average scores from each category and applied penalties for actual corruption cases each organization had been embroiled in.

Each agency was sorted into five groups, with the first group being the least corrupt. The Welfare Ministry ― scoring 6.88 ― was among six type 1 agencies that were in the fourth group that also included the Transportation Ministry, Defense Ministry, Labor Ministry, Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and National Tax Service.

The Ministry of Education was found to be the most corrupt, scoring 6.89, marking a 0.46-point decline from the year before and ranking the lowest out of all government organizations.

Its reputation appears to have been hampered by a series of corruption scandals, the most recent of which involved its former spokesman who was arrested by the prosecution in October for allegedly receiving bribes. The ministry’s policies ― which includes the hotly disputed plan to reinstate government-issued history textbooks ― also appeared to prompt public backlash, as it also finished at the bottom of the scale in policy evaluation.

But the Welfare Ministry suffered the largest drop among government bodies in terms of integrity. Compared to the year before, its score fell by 0.87 points.

“The ministry scored poorly in both surveys of its employees and outsiders, and it was further penalized in 11 cases for corruption during the year,” an ACRC official said.

The Welfare Ministry has been in the hot seat over how it addressed the recent outbreak of the Middle East respiratory syndrome.

“Although we cannot say if a specific incident worsened public opinion toward the ministry, it is clear that the public on the whole has a less favorable impression than before,” said another ACRC official.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration, under public scrutiny over arms procurement scandals, was another type 2 agency in the fourth group. But it marked an improvement of 0.43 compared to the year before, when it finished rock-bottom.

The Finance Ministry saw its score fall by 0.35 as it slid into the fourth group after finishing in the third group the year before.

Statistics Korea and Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency retained their crowns among type 1 and type 2 organizations, respectively. The two agencies, along with the Korea Customs Service for type 1, were the only three organizations in the top group.

The Daejeon Metropolitan Government was found to be the least corrupt of city or provincial governments at 7.6, while North Gyeongsang Provincial Government was the most corrupt and the only member of the fifth group. The Seoul Metropolitan Government, the nation’s capital and most populous city, was included in group 4.

The Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education was bestowed with the title of the cleanest education office with a score of 7.84, while Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education took home the dishonorable title of most corrupt, scoring 7.02.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)