Press Releases
Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission
Feb 17,2025
“ACRC Works Together for Clean, Ethical Business Management!”
- ACRC publishes "Self-Regulatory Guideline on Ethical Compliance Program for Business”to strengthen ability to handle global anti-corruption standards and ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) management
(7, January. 2025, ACRC)
Self-Regulatory Guideline on ethical Compliance Program for Business, which includes key elements of CP (Compliance Program), is a newly published voluntary, preventive guideline to minimize potential corruption risk and exercise ethical management for corporate business management.
Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Ryu Chul Whan) published Self-Regulatory Guideline on ethical Compliance Program for Business after publishing guideline for public institutions in 2022. ACRC distributed the guideline to the relevant institutions including economic organizations for companies to use, and it can also be found on the ACRC’s website.
Under the Article 5 (Duties of Enterprises) of the Act on the Prevention of Corruption and the Establishment and Management of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and Article 3 (Support for Ethical Business Management) of its Enforcement Decree, ACRC put efforts to disseminate ethical business management culture of companies.
※ ACRC monthly publishes Integrity and Ethics Compliance Management Briefs from 2005 to introduce ethical business management cases and distributes Integrity and Ethics Compliance Program Guideline for public institutions from 2022 for pilot.
The guideline summarizes the major global anti-corruption standards and various regulatory reinforcement trends that businesses must know and includes essential elements and references of the compliance program.
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▴ (System building) Form strong and explicit will of senior management to practice ethical management and a dedicated organization. ▴ (Operation) Determine the level of risk and implement mitigation measures by identifying corruption risk level and considering probability and its impact from various perspectives, operate a systematic reporting system ▴ (Communication) Provide and communicate customized training to employees, stakeholders, business partners and others ▴ (Monitoring and improvement) Establish and implement clear standards of sanctions for CP violators and provide fair and consistent incentives when they contribute to disseminate ethical management and culture ▴ (Disclosure and record keeping) Establish and disclosure of standards in accordance with international norms and global disclosure standards as well as record keeping |
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From the planning stage to the publication of the guideline, there was continuous advice from academia, legal, and economic experts of ethical management and ESG, and the guideline is jointly published by collaborating with six economic organizations*.
* Korea Chamber of commerce and industry, Korea Federation of SMEs, Korea Enterprises Federation, The Federation of Korean Industries, Korea International Trade Association, Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea
“Anti-corruption standards are gradually strengthening around the world and sanction on violating companies increases, so Korean companies’ ethical management is an essential investment for future survival,” said Ryu Chul Whan, chairperson of the ACRC. “We hope our companies will be able to prevent the risk of corruption in the long term by checking and supplementing the current status of ethical management based on this guideline.”