SOUTH KOREA
A new revision to the Code of Conduct for the South Korean Public Service requires officials to report to authorities all personal meetings with retired officials.
While violations of the code are not regarded as criminal offences, public officials could face various disciplinary action, ranging from reprimands or other light penalties to severe punishment including sacking.
The Code of Conduct was first established in 2003, and has undergone several revisions since.
It has the purpose of prescribing standards of conduct for public officials as set by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.
The Commission, which oversees the anti-graft law for public officials, tightened the Code following various scandals last year involving hiring practices in public institutions, commanding officers’ abuse of soldiers assigned to their residences and other PS employees abusing their status or authority for their own interests.
The new revision — the tenth since 2003 — forbids a public official from playing golf, travelling or engaging in other leisure activities and personal meetings with a former colleague who has been retired for less than two years without reporting it to the head of their Agency.
The regulation is meant to prevent retired public officials from being granted privileges as well as possible collusion.
An official from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance expressed exasperation with the new regulation.
“There are many cases when we accidentally bump into former colleagues in situations such as at drinking meetings,” the official said.
“What do we do then?”
Another official who works at the Government complex in Sejong said the ruling was too extreme.
“It prohibits meetings with people I am personally friendly with,” the official said.
“I don’t plan to meet with my retired senior colleagues for the time being, but I am worried that our relations will become estranged.”
Some, however, welcomed the change as an excuse to evade awkward encounters.
“I have senior colleagues who went to private companies or law firms, and they ask to meet and it’s awkward,” another official said.
“In the future, I will be able to refer to the Code of Conduct.”
Seoul, 17 April 2018
