Republic of Korea's 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index, released annually by Transparency International, ranks 45th out of 180 surveyed countries scoring 57%. It also ranks 30th out of 36 OECD countries, staying at the lowest level among OECD countries for the past decade.
This study looks at the factors affecting public corruption in terms of corruption theory and criminal psychology, analyzing how they are applied in the four types of cases researcher detected in the Board of Audit and Inspection. The researcher then proposes several measures to prevent and eradicate public corruption in the future on the basis of the factors revealed through case analysis. A summary of the characteristics of the factors affecting corruption are as follows.
First, corrupt public officials in all cases consciously committed corruption knowing their actions were corrupt.
Second, corrupt public officials in all cases wanted to satisfy their basic human desires, such as material greeds, physical pleasures, honor or pursuit for power, more easily through corrupt behaviors than through their own efforts.
Third, in all cases of corruption, authoritarianism which would be typical characteristics of traditional Korean society, turned out to be one of the important factors. In particular, authoritarianism was well illustrated in organized and collective corruption.
Fourth, corruption in all cases did not end up with one-shot behavior, but continued repeatedly over a long period.
Fifth, in all cases of corruption, the internal control system did not work properly, even assisting or encouraging corrupt behaviors.
Sixth, according to their own needs, public officials and those involved in their duties played leading roles as corruption demanders and corruption suppliers respectively.
All of these characteristics reflect the problems of corruption management in Korea, which suggested we need effective measures for preventing corruption.
As many preceding researches on corruption show, all cases in this study illustrate that the source of corruption is based on human nature and desire for material, sexual or honorary needs. These desires are the most fundamental starting points of corruption. Ethical and moral educations are the measures to eradicate corruption through the control of these desires, and such educations should be carried out as long-term and medium-term measures.
In this study, measures for eradicating corruption were divided into preventive measures and post-control measures, and preventive measures were divided into long-term and medium-term education measures.
First, the long-term measures include reforming the overly competitive education system and implementing ethics education for the young to abide by laws and rules as members of the social community. Such education should be provided to the all the citizens, including growing teenagers.
Second, as medium-term measures various educational programs should be developed for adult who have career. Education for preventing corruption should cover those engaged in private organizations larger than a certain size as well as public institutions.
Third, as post-control measures, the government should reduce the same and similar corrupt behaviors as well as repetitive and persistent ones through the restoration of self-disciplined functions and appropriate penalties. The most important thing in restoring the unctions of the self-disciplined system is the will to eradicate corruption among the head of an organization and other senior management.
It might be true that this study lacks objectivity due to the individual experience the researcher. Despite these limitations, this study have meaningful effects on other public corruption researches and contribute to the development of "clean society without corruption".