Business Will Not Tolerate Illegal Political Money

The business community has adopted a statement of anti-politics and anti-corruption to stop the unfair circulation of political money offered by business people.

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) showed its strong determination against corruptive dealings between the business and political groups at its gathering on September 5 saying, “By not offering unfair political funds to politicians, we will sever the long-standing collusive relationship between business and politics.”

FKI’s statement was adopted at its special gathering session to prevent corruptive behavior and promote ethics management within business corporations.

The largest business group has shown its will to not provide any illegal political funds once before, but this is the first time that it actually adopted a comprehensive statement for its all-out anti-corruption campaign.

This new movement can be interpreted as its willingness to participate in “transparent” and “ethical” management, which is becoming standard globally in the business world. The movement can also be seen as an attempt to appease a public aggravated by SK’s recent secret involvement with politicians.

In the statement, FKI decided to set up a special ethics committee within the organization to serve as an effective anti-corruption device. It will attempt to maintain exact accounting practices and to provide fair corporate information as a way to secure corporate transparency.

It also agreed to rigorously comply to the current laws and regulations regarding the usage and limitation of business reception fees. In addition, it will stipulate detailed regulations for corporate expenses related to such events marriages and funerals to cut off any unjust channels.

FKI will frequently hold a review session with the Corporate Ethics Committee and Corporate Ethics Working Committee to implement those points mentioned.

Jong sik Kong kong@donga.com