Gyeonggi Province Economic Science Research Institute, Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation Selected for 10th Gyeonggi Integrity Award

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 15th that it recently held a review meeting for the Integrity Award and selected outstanding institutions and employees including Bucheon and Gyeonggi Province Economic Science Research Institute that have greatly contributed to corruption prevention and improvement of integrity.

This year marks the 10th Gyeonggi Province Integrity Award. Bucheon was selected for the grand prize in the institutional category, Anyang received the excellence award, and Paju received the encouragement award.

In the organization category, Gyeonggi Province Economic Science Research Institute won the grand prize, and Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation received the encouragement award. In the department category, the province's Livelihood Special Investigation Police Division won the grand prize, and the Multi-unit Housing Division received the encouragement award.

In the individual category, Yang Song-i of Gyeonggi Pyeongtaek Port Authority receives the excellence award, and Kim A-ri of Gyeonggi Lifelong Education Promotion Institute receives the encouragement award.

Bucheon, which received the grand prize in the institutional category, established a system in which all departments enter details of business trip allowance disbursements into the administrative network to prevent disbursement errors resulting from incorrect policy application or mistakes.

The audit department monitors monthly records of allowance disbursements and proactively corrects erroneous payments rather than making post-hoc corrections, a systematized approach that greatly improved business trip allowance management and was highly evaluated.

Gyeonggi Province Economic Science Research Institute, which received the grand prize in the organization category, introduced the ‘Integrity Mileage System’ composed of integrity activity recommendation indicators to all employees since 2018 and implemented internal awards for outstanding employees and departments.

Through this system, it has encouraged autonomous integrity practice and social contribution by individuals and departments, and received high marks for achieving three consecutive years of improved integrity scores in the integrity evaluation of public institutions.

Gyeonggi Province's Livelihood Special Investigation Police Division, which received the grand prize in the department category, introduced an ‘Investigation Information System’ that allows managers to monitor ongoing investigations in real time and enables investigators to correct potential errors.

Additionally, it was highly evaluated for securing fairness and transparency in investigations by publicly disclosing statistics on livelihood crimes for the first time in the nation, and for actively improving factors that could cause human rights violations during investigations through ‘mandatory human rights education’ and ‘human rights violation reporting channels’ for investigators.

Yang Song-i of Gyeonggi Pyeongtaek Port Authority, who received the excellence award in the individual category, was recognized for promptly and transparently implementing institutional improvement recommendations made by the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission regarding corruption-vulnerable areas such as contracts, assets, and personnel in the port sector and public enterprises, earning the honor of the excellence award.

Given the continued spread of COVID-19, Gyeonggi Province decided to forgo a separate award ceremony and distribute the total prize money of 29 million won entirely in regional currency to promote the local economy.

Hong Sung-deok, the Province's Investigation Director, said, “With many institutions and individuals applying for this year's 10th Gyeonggi Province Integrity Award, I believe this is a result of forming a consensus on the importance of integrity,” and added, “Going forward, we will actively discover various integrity policies in the field and disseminate excellent integrity initiatives to all cities and counties in the province so that integrity culture can spread throughout the province.”