Ruling Party Seeks to Revise Ethics Rules for Public Officials

On Wednesday, President Roh Moo-hyun accentuated the need to hone to a more efficient mechanism the system of registering the private property of public officials. The president remarked that such an effort would entail a revision of the Civil Servant Ethics Act to strengthen the screening of the wealth accumulation process, as well as an adoption of the blind trust system.

At a signing ceremony of the Transparent Society Pact, held at the Kim Koo Museum ＆ Library in central Seoul and attended by over 120 dignitaries associated with the political, corporate, civil and public sectors, President Roh revisited the need to erect a specific and detailed roadmap to realize the themes embodied in the Transparent Society Pact.

The president also solicited an expeditious and bipartisan push for a bill that would mandate the establishment of a government body empowered to investigate corruption charges against high-ranking public officials, thereby providing an effective hedge against the arbitrary use of their powers.

The president’s remarks were echoed by Kim Han-gill, an Uri Party official and member of the National Assembly, who also announced his espousal of an amendment to the Civil Servant Ethics Act to obligate the disclosure of the wealth accretion process when top-tier officials register their private property.

Jung-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com