Suwon City Implements Integrity Assessment for Grade 5 and Above Officials

Suwon City will conduct individual integrity assessments for 151 senior civil servants at grade 5 and above, and diagnose corruption risks in the city's organizational environment and work environment corruption risks for 130 managerial positions, with the goal of establishing a clean public service culture and eliminating various irregularities.

The assessment and diagnosis will utilize the standard model from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and will be conducted through online surveys from the 16th to 23rd of this month.

The individual integrity assessment consists of 19 survey evaluation items including official integrity, integrity practice efforts, and taking the lead by example, as well as five quantitative assessment items (deduction indicators) such as tax delinquency, road traffic violations, disciplinary action, and completion of integrity education.

The assessment calculates the final score by reflecting deduction indicator scores as deductions on individual integrity scores from upper-level, peer, and lower-level evaluation panels.

The organizational environment corruption risk diagnosis examines five items including organizational openness, scope of authority, and nepotism, while the work environment corruption risk diagnosis assesses five items including solicitation risk, degree of discretion, and stakeholder risk.

The city plans to individually notify the personal integrity assessment results to encourage self-management and integrity practice, and will analyze corruption risk factors identified in the organizational and work environment corruption risk diagnoses to reflect improvements and integrity-enhancing policies in its response measures.

A city official stated, "Improving integrity is important not only for civil servants but also for citizen participation," and added, "If you discover any public interest violations, we urge you to report to the Government Welfare Fraud Reporting Center, the Public Interest Reporting Center, or the Civil Service Misconduct Reporting Center."

In response, a local political figure said, "It has been reported in the media and confirmed as fact that Mayor Yeom Tae-young purchased land one day before announcing the development plan," and added, "A direct explanation regarding the land purchase should come before the integrity assessment of senior civil servants."

Mayor Yeom has been referred to the prosecution on suspicion of violating the Anti-Corruption Act after it was revealed that he purchased land on March 31st, one day before announcing the plan to develop the Seo-Suwon R&D; Science Park.