Tough anti-graft law takes effect

Legislation to help root out low-level corruption

SEOUL, Sept 28, (AFP): A tough new anti-graft law came into force in South Korea Wednesday with many hailing it as a milestone to help root out widespread low-level corruption.

Dubbed the Kim Young-Ran law after the former supreme court judge who drafted it, the sweeping legislation covers some four million public servants and employees of education institutions in the country of 50 million.

The law targets teachers bribed by parents to give better grades, journalists paid to give favourable publicity and officials bought off by businessmen to speed up bureaucratic processes.

They are now banned from accepting gifts worth 50,000 won ($45) or more, or meals of 30,000 won or more, with offenders facing hefty fines or even a prison term.

Prohibits

The law even prohibits the common practice among doctors and other workers at university hospitals of offering favourable treatment to personal acquaintances, including expedited scheduling of surgery.

Offenders often slipped through loopholes of the existing anti-corruption law, as it was hard to prove that money or gifts changed hands in return for a favour instead of as a token of hospitality.

“The new law is quite different from the past one. It covers a much wider range of wrongful activities and contains much more severe punishment against offenders”, National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-Kyun told journalists.

“It will help bring a stop to old habits... People may find it inconvenient but good medicine tastes bitter”, he said.

Presidential spokesman Jung YounKuk also said the law would be “a turning point to create a fair, clean society

decades ago.

Last year, the final suspect in the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Japanese capital’s metro was jailed for life for his part in a crime that shocked the world.

The attack left 13 people dead and injured some 6,000. (AFP)

China to prosecute ex-partychief:

China will prosecute a former Communist Party boss in the western city of Hotan, in the troubled Xinjiang region, an anti-graft ... and to enhance our national integrity”.

NGOs have welcomed the new legislation. Lee Eun-Mi, head of the Centre for Administrative Watch at the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, said last week it would make many people “think twice whenever they have the chance to wine and dine or accept gifts”.

She noted that whistle blowers will be rewarded with up to 200 million won, which may help curb corruption.

Complaints

The law however drew complaints from local businesses and restaurants who feared sales would slump.

Some restaurants recently introduced “Kim Young-Ran menus” priced at 29,900 won or less.

A mobile app was even launched recently to help people look up whether they are a target of the law as well as the details of the legislation.

South Korea — the world’s 11th biggest economy and the Asia’s fourth largest — has fared relatively poorly in corruption or transparency levels.

Last year it was ranked 37th in the World Corruption Perceptions Index and 123rd in transparency in public policymaking in the Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum. Bribery scandals involving politicians or high-level officials and rich businessmen have been fixture in South Korean politics for decades.

Local media organisations have been under criticism for years for removing or dismissing stories that are damaging to big advertisers.

In the past, people charged with receiving bribes got away with a slap on the wrist or were acquitted as it was hard to prove that money or gifts changed hands in return for a favour instead of as a token of hospitality.

In 2010, a businessman revealed on

watchdog said on Wednesday, as President Xi Jinping pushes on with a years-long crackdown on corruption.

Chen Yuanhua, 50, was removed from his post as party secretary in Hotan and expelled from the party for “serious violations of discipline”, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement on its website. Authorities announced an investigation into Chen earlier in the year.

Chen let others pay for luxury hotels, abused his post for the benefit of others, a local investigative TV programme that he had regularly handed 57 former or incumbent state prosecutors cash gifts or treated them to lavish meals and sex services.

A year later, a state prosecutor was investigated over charges that she received cash gifts, designer bags and a luxury sedan from a lawyer.

Both cases, however, were dropped as there was no evidence that the transactions were made in return for favours or in connection with the recipients’ jobs. Ensuing public uproar inspired the new law, the “Improper Solicitation and Graft Act”, an attempt to tighten loopholes in the country’s existing antigraft legislation.

NGOs have welcomed the law, expressing hope it will help enhance transparency.

“Many will think twice whenever they have the chance to wine and dine or accept gifts”, said Lee Eun-Mi, head of the Centre for Administrative Watch at the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy.

Rewarded

“Under this law, whistle blowers will be rewarded with cash of up to 200 million won, and this may serve as a strong restraint when you are tempted by corruption,” she added.

However, the law has been greeted with wariness in some quarters.

“We will closely monitor whether the authorities will attempt to take advantage of the law by applying the law arbitrarily in a bid to tame the media and limit their normal reporting practice,” the Journalists’ Association of Korea said in a statement.

Some critics say the law’s targeting of private sector workers — journalists and school teachers — is potentially unconstitutional and that the government rushed the law through as a sop to public opinion.

sought and accepted a huge amount of assets, as well as cash and gift cards, “swallowed public funds”, and “maintained long-term inappropriate sexual relations” with others, the commission said.

His case would be transferred to judicial authorities, the country’s main anti-graft agency said, indicating he would be prosecuted. (RTRS)

Coal mine explosion kills 18:

Chinese authorities blamed illegal mining activities for a gas explosion at a coal mine that killed 18 miners left two others missing, Chinese state media reported Wednesday.

Tuesday morning’s explosion occurred at a small coal mine when 20 miners were working underground in the city of Shizuishan in the northwestern region of Ningxia, the official Xinhua News Agency said. State broadcaster CCTV had said in the morning that the blast had killed 19 people, but later reported 18 deaths.

Local officials said at a news conference early Wednesday that representatives of the company that owned the mine, the Linli Coal Mining Co Ltd, were in police custody, Xinhua said.

Xinhua cited an initial investigation as showing that the blast was caused by illegal mining, but did not provide details. The company could not immediately be reached at its listed phone number, which rang busy.

At the briefing, Wu Yuguo, the city’s vice mayor, said an excessive concentration of gas and the destruction of the mine shaft have hindered rescue efforts.

China’s mines have long been the world’s deadliest, but safety improvements have reduced deaths in recent years. (AP)