Creating a fair society has been one of the Moon administration's major promises... and South Korea's anti-corruption commission has been at the forefront of efforts to deliver on that promise.
Our Choi Si-young got to sit down with the commission's chairperson to hear about the commission's future plans and its major achievements.

"Helping to build a transparent government."
That's how the chief of South Korea's Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission describes its mission.
And she intends to do more.

"As the anti-corruption arm of the government, our organization primarily aims to reduce corruption in the public sector. And we intend to help to reduce corruption in the private sector as well. So we're currently working to come up with a so-called "corruption index" to gauge corruption levels in the private sector by industry."

The 4 key categories of the corruption index proposed by the commission evaluate whether employees take part in accounting fraud or embezzlement.
They also evaluate whether bigger firms impose unfair subcontracts on smaller ones and whether companies damage consumer rights by leaking personal data.
The commission added it will bring more transparency into how state funds are managed

"Effective January next year, the new law will punish those that wrongfully file for state funds. They will have to pay back the requested state fund AND pay a fine of up to five times the money they've received."
When asked about the commission's major achievements, chairperson Pak referred to the full-scale government investigation into the unfair hiring practices at state firms last February.

"We spearheaded the inspection and were joined by other ministries such as the justice and finance ministries. We rooted out corruption and made the hiring procedures more transparent.
We are still staying vigilant in case of possible violations."

The anti-corruption watchdog says it will continue working to safeguard the public interests and asked for more support.
Choi Si-young, Arirang News.