Regular public disclosure of changes in high-ranking public officials' personal assets for 2018

March 29, 2018

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

【Outline of disclosure】

The Government Ethics Committee (Chairperson Park Si-hwan) disclosed the details of reports about changes in personal assets of 1,711 government officials who have the duty of disclosure under the committee's authority on March 29, 2018 (Thu.) in its official gazette.

The public officials obliged to disclose their personal assets under the authority of the Government Ethics Committee include public officials in political service at the administrative body, grade-A public officials who belong to the Senior Executive Service, presidents of national universities, executives of public service-related organizations, heads of local and metropolitan city governments, members of metropolitan city councils, superintendents of city and provincial education offices and so on.

※The changes in the personal assets of the public officials of the National Assembly (324), Supreme Court (173), Constitutional Court (11), National Elections Commission (18), and members of local government councils (2,943) will be separately disclosed by the ethics committee that has the authority over each of them.

Public officials who are obliged to regularly disclose their personal assets according to Article 6 of the Public Service Ethics Act should report changes in their personal assets from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017, by February 2018.

The Government Ethics Committee is required to disclose the details of the reporting by the public officials subject to the duty within one month of the termination of the reporting period, pursuant to Article 10 of the Government Ethics Act .

The details of the disclosure can be seen on the web-site of ｢Korea e-Gazette｣ (gwanbo.mois.go.kr).

【Details of changes in assets】

The average amount of reported personal assets of people who have the duty of disclosure under the authority of the Government Ethics Committee (including spouses and direct ascendents and descendents including parents) was found out to be 1,347,000,000 won.

By the scale of assets, those who have personal assets worth between 500 million and one billion won take up the largest share at 28.5% (488 people).

In the household of the public officials obliged to report their assets, the public officials themselves have 729,000,000 won (54.1%), their spouses have 483,000,000 won (35.9%), and direct ascendents and descendents including parents have 135,000,000 won (10.0%), on average.

In addition, the average personal assets of the public officials subject to the mandatory reporting increased by approximately 83,000,000 won from the previously-reported average of assets of the same public officials.

In detail, 37.3% (31,000,000 won) of the increase was caused by changes in the price of their assets such as rise in officially assessed individual land price, officially announced prices of detached houses, and the composite price index of stocks, while 62.7% in the increased amount (52,000,000 won) came from increase of net assets from wages, savings, inheritance or giving, etc.

Out of the 1,711 public officials obliged to disclose their personal assets, the asset increased for 1,279 officials who take up 74.8%, while the asset decreased for 432 officials who take up 25.2%.

【Deliberation on personal asset disclosure】

The Government Ethics Committee will complete deliberation on the changes in personal assets of all the public officials disclosed this year by the end of June.

The committee will take action such as issuance of warning and corrective action, imposition of fine for negligence, and request for vote for dismissal or discipline, etc. according to the Government Ethics Act, in a case where disclosed assets are found out to be false in deliberation, a case of omission or wrong specification of assets due to a serious mistake, and a case of taking gain to the assets by using a secret obtained with regards of public duties.

In addition, deliberation on the process of assets' formation will be strengthened in order to meet higher expectations of the people for the ethics of government officials, by inspecting the process of asset acquisition or source of the fund in a case when the amount of assets increased excessively in consideration of the income level or a case of public officials who hold non-listed stocks over a certain value.

Notably, suspicion over unfair asset increase in connection with public duties or whether other law violations exist will be strictly examined and such cases will be notified to relevant institutions when found out.

The Government Ethics Committee said, "We will operate the asset disclosure and deliberation system consistently and strictly, in order to realize the public sector trusted by the people."