Press Releases
Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission
Mar 20,2026
Corruption Caused by Less Predictable Statutes to be Prevented from Its Drafting Stage
- The ACRC conducted Corruption Impact Assessment last year on 1,357 newly enacted or amended statutes from 46 central administrative agencies, identified 247 corruption-inducing factors in 122 statutes and recommended improvements
(Feb. 4, 2026, ACRC)
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) conducted Corruption Impact Assessment* on 1,357 statutes enacted or amended by central administrative agencies last year. After reviewing issues such as excessive administrative discretion, unreasonable sanctions, or unnecessary regulations, it identified 247 corruption-inducing factors in 122 statutes and recommended improvements to the relevant ministries.
* A preventive anti-corruption institution that systematically analyzes corruption-inducing
factors (e.g. undefined concepts, loopholes in regulations, appropriateness of discretion) during the drafting stage of statutes and institutions and proactively addresses or eliminates them.
According to the assessment results, statutes that do not have enough predictability and difficult for citizens to foresee the consequence were the most numerous at 79 cases (32.0%) among the 247 recommendations for the improvement of corruption-inducing factors.
This was followed by 63 cases (25.5%) where the specificity and objectivity of discretionary provisions were insufficient, raising concerns about abuse of discretion, and 27 cases (10.9%) where the level of sanctions was inadequate.
By sector, the environment and health sector had the highest proportion of 27.9%* (69 recommendations for 34 statutes). This was followed by the industry and development sector at 21.3% (47 recommendations for 26 statutes) and the defense and veterans affairs sector at 16.4% (47 recommendations for 20 statutes). Recommendations on improvement were mostly made for statutes for new industry development and support.
* Calculated based on the number of statutes
|
Field |
Key Improvement Recommendations |
|
Social Welfare |
Establish operational standards on regional support centers for disabled children to prevent waste of budget including subsidies for customized support for children with disabilities |
|
Industrial Development |
Specify details on the designation method the evaluation agencies for real estate development project to ensure appropriate administration |
|
Sports |
Clearly define the statute of temporal limitations on requesting re-discipline for sports organizations to establish a means of excessive discretion control |
|
Social Welfare |
Notify subjects of social service survey plans in advance and disclose survey results via websites to ensure administrative transparency |
|
Disaster Management |
Specify qualifications and deployment of disaster management specialists to ensure specificity in disaster control administration |
|
Employment |
Set detailed provisions for delegated/contracted matters in employment stability support projects to ensure accountability in delegation/contracting |
Vice Chairperson of the ACRC, Lee Myong Sun, stated “We have continuously pursued efforts on corruption prevention in the public sector through the Corruption Impact Assessment and supported the fair and predictable implementation for the most of the government's laws and institutions throughout the year.”
He added, “This year, we will strive to diagnose statutes affecting citizens' rights, obligations, and daily lives in more agile and precise way to prevent any infringement of citizens' rights and interests due to unreasonable or unfair provisions.”