S. Korea crashers are ‘graft-busters’
‘3-5-10 rule’
SEOUL, Oct 4 , (RTRS): A pair of aspiring paparazzi staked out two weddings in Seoul’s highend Gangnam district recently, but they weren’t looking for celebrities. Their target: officials receiving gifts that might violate South Korea’s tough new anti-corruption law.
About 4 million people are estimated to be directly covered by the law — civil servants, employees at state-owned enterprises, teachers, journalists — which limits the value of meals and gifts that can be accepted.
With rewards worth up to 200 million won ($181,691), it is also fuelling a cottage industry of camera-wielding, receipt-scavenging vigilantes targeting expensive restaurants and fancy weddings in a country with a deep tradition of entertaining and gift-giving.
Some of them come for training in the art of espionage at a school that calls itself the Headquarters of Reporting for Public Good, including the two that went to the weddings.
“You can get rich and become a patriot at the same time,” school president Moon Seoung-ok told students participating in a recent class that included tips on using hidden cameras.
“You can pick up credit card receipts from garbage at restaurants,” Moon told his students at his classroom housed in an office near a Seoul courthouse, where he hands out booklets about the anti-graft law. “You need to obtain evidence.”
Park
Ranked
South Korea ranked 27th among 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International. South Korea’s president is
Since the law took effect on Sept. 28, golf course reservations have plunged and fewer guests are attending weddings, while hospitals have posted warnings against thank-you gifts, media have reported. Some groups of diners are splitting bills - a practice once almost-unheard of in the country.
Consumer and entertainment companies could lose up to 11.6 trillion won ($10.43 billion) under the law, the Korea Economic Research Institute said in June.
The law limits the value of meals that can be accepted by public servants and others to 30,000 won. Gifts are capped at 50,000 won in value, while cash gifts that are traditionally handed over in envelopes at weddings and funerals are limited to 100,000 won, under prohibitions now known as the “3-510” rule.
Violators can expect fines, but would face criminal prosecution for more serious infringements, such as receiving a gift of more than 1 million won, or for receiving a total of over 3 million won worth of gifts in a year.
Businesses are scrambling to adjust. The lobby group for the Korean conglomerates known as chaebol, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), held a seminar on Sept. 8 attended by about 400 people on how corporate officials should comply with the law.
In South Korea, the term “paparazzi” applies not only to photographers chasing celebrities but to individuals who can win cash in other “report and reward” schemes that cover offences such as running traffic lights or dropping cigarette butts on the street.