TDRI QUARTERLY REVIEW vol.32 no.3 september 2017 Executive Editor CONTENTS Jirakorn Yingpaiboonwong Editorial Staff Corruption: Wattana Kanchananit Lessons Learned from Art Director Seoul to Bangkok wrongdesign Khanittha Hongprayoon Editor Deunden Nikomborirak John Loftus –PAGE 2 The Thailand Development Research Institute Foundation Way Forward in was established in 1984 to conduct Enhancing Business policy research and disseminate and Preventing Human results to the public and private Rights Abuses, and the sectors. TDRI was conceived, Role of the National created and registered as a Human Rights Commis- non-profit, non-governmental sion of Thailand foundation, and is recognized as such by the Royal Thai Govern- Jirawat Suriyashotichyangkul ment. The Institute does technical Nonarit Bisonyabut and policy analyses to support Supachai Sompol the formulation of policies with long-term implications for –PAGE 14 sustaining social and economic development. 3 Corruption: Lessons Learned from Seoul to Bangkok Khanittha Hongprayoon Deunden Nikomborirak* 1. Introduction Corruption is one of the key factors defning a country’s level of social and economic development. Countries ranking highly in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which is constructed annually by Transparency International (TI), can better attract foreign investment and experts. Fighting corruption requires tremendous efforts and resources, such as an effective anti- corruption strategy and various other measures, suffcient budget, qualifed personnel and mobilization of multiple organizations. Most importantly, it * Ms. Khanittha Hongprayoon is researcher with the Human Resources and Social Development Program, and requires endorsement from the government. Hence, Dr. Deunden Nikomborirak is Research Director, Economic dealing with corruption at the national level can be Governance, Thailand Development Research Institute. extremely challenging such that a government that 4 QUARTERLY REVIEW examine the case of the Republic of Korea where local and national politics are closely intertwined. 2. A brief history of corruption in the Republic of Korea The Republic of Korea (commonly referred to as ROK or South Korea) used to be one of the countries rife with corruption. Following the end wants “quick results” would certainly not choose of World War II in 1945 until 1993, the ROK was to ignore those challenges. ruled by military dictatorships. During this era, There is some light at the end of the tunnel, streams of corruption spread through all levels of however. Many national leaders were once local government, from leaders to public servants. Leaders governors. For example, the President of Indonesia, became corrupted by defrauding sources of overseas Mr. Jojo Widodo, used to be the mayor of Jakarta; fnancial aid assistance for post-war reconstruction, the President of the Philippines, Mr. Rodrigo Duterte, in particular that from the United States. In addition, used to be the mayor of Davao City; and many the chaebols – family-run business conglomerates – former presidents of the United States, including were another major source of corruption. Chaebols Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and and political leaders thrived under a patronage George W. Bush, were once state governors. If local system. The chaebols received fnancial support politics and administration is a stepping-stone for from the government, such as soft loans, subsidies national counterparts, then it may be worthwhile or tax benefts, in exchange for bribes that might take to study anti-corruption schemes initiated by local the form of legal corporate fnancial donations to politicians as they may become a testing ground for foundations set up by the ruling president’s family larger schemes at the national level. In this study, we members or other relatives. vol.32 no.3 september 2017 5 Table 1: Average number of corruption cases involving Seoul Metropolitan Government officials recorded by that government during each mayor’s term during the period 1995-2005 Source: Seoul Solution. 2014. e-Government of Seoul opens a new chapter of transparency, effciency and public participation. Available from https://seoulsolution.kr/en/content/e-government-seoul-opens-new-chapter-transparency-effciency-and-public-participation?language=en In 1994, the ROK entered a democratic era governance reform of the SMG. with elected civilian governments. As a demonstration In 1998, the SMG under the administration of its break from the traditionally opaque of Mayor Goh Kun earnestly declared a fght against administration of former dictatorial governments, corruption; a range of systematic and comprehensive elected governments focused more on the issues measures were launched. The massive anti-corruption of administrative transparency and anti-corruption crackdown resulted in a sharp fall in the average efforts. During this period, many nationwide anti- number of bribery, dereliction of duty and other corruption schemes were introduced. As part of types of corrupt practices,1 from 111 cases to 92 those schemes, all provinces in the ROK, including cases per annum, as can be seen in Table 1. The Seoul, must hold local mayoral elections in order successful SMG anti-corruption scheme helped to decentralize the government. boost the city’s reputation in both the domestic and Although the ROK was thus administered the international arenas. with greater transparency, corruption during the The effectiveness of the anti-corruption military dictatorship era continued to take its toll. schemes implemented by the SMG offers valuable In 1994, the Seongsu Bridge in Seoul crashed due lessons for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to sub-standard construction which caused the death (BMA). Both Seoul and Bangkok share many of 32 people. In the following year, the Sampoong common characteristics. For example, both are Department Store in Seoul collapsed following a gas capital cities that are considered to be metropolitan explosion which caused the death of more than 500 areas and both have elected mayors. people. Investigation into both tragedies found that a The objective of this paper is to examine number of Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) successful anti-corruption measures implemented public servants were involved in both disaster cases. by the SMG in order to propose possible anti- A lack of caution was identifed as a characteristic of corruption schemes for the BMA. inspecting offcials in the case of the Seongsu Bridge The paper is divided into five sections. and in their approval of a misleading construction Sections 3 and 4 contain an elaboration of the anti- plan for the Sampoong Department Store. These shocking disasters triggered a call for a major 1 The number of corruption cases was recorded by the SMG audit team. 6 QUARTERLY REVIEW corruption environment and measures of the SMG and the BMA respectively. Section 5 contains a set of recommendations for the BMA. 3. Anti-corruption scheme implemented by the Seoul Metropolitan Government As the capital city of the ROK, Seoul is also at the heart of development in several ways, including investment in infrastructure and facilities. The city is, however, a channel for both public offcers and private investors to become involved in corruption. The two previously mentioned tragedies, namely the collapse of Seongsu Bridge and Sampoong Department Store, are good examples of local government corruption resulting in the loss of life and property. Goh Kun Since 1998, the SMG – under Mayor Goh Kun – declared a “war on corruption.” A systematic approach and array of measures were adopted to make administrative and public services as transparent as possible. Among the measures, an online public service system and public service evaluation system stood out as the most effective and successful measures in conducting this “war.” The online public service system started in 1998 when the mayor of Seoul declared war on corruption. The Online Procedures ENhancement for Civil Application (OPEN) system was introduced to minimize physical contact between public offcers and local residents who need information about public services, want to fle complaints, or wish to submit applications for specifc permits or licenses; this measure was aimed at precluding the opportunity to offer or collect bribes. The system also enables residents to track the status of their applications Lee Myung Bak online. Furthermore, status reports also show the name and contact details of the offcer handling a particular application. Local residents who wish to fle an application for permits and licenses, as shown in Table 2, can access the system online 24 hours a day 7 days a week. vol.32 no.3 september 2017 7 Table 2: Permits and licensing procedures made available online under the OPEN system Source: Seoul Solution. 2014. Ibid. 8 QUARTERLY REVIEW Within the frst seven months of operation, 1. The Anti-Corruption Index is aimed at the number of visitors to the online permit and promoting good governance for better administrative licensing website reached 240,000 and climbed to and public service within various departments and 3.5 million later in the year. In 1999, the system district offces. The ACI was compiled by asking received favorable recognition at both domestic local residents to fll out a questionnaire assessing and international forums. The system was applied the following: to national as well as local administrations. At the • The extent to which administrative international level, the World Bank,