Addressing Unfair Practices through Big Data (KR0057)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Republic of Korea Action Plan 2021-2023
Action Plan Cycle: 2021
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: General Institutional Improvement Division, Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission
Support Institution(s): N/A
Policy Areas
Education, Public Participation, Public Service DeliveryIRM Review
IRM Report: Republic of Korea Results Report 2021-2023, Republic of Korea Action Plan Review 2021-2023
Early Results: Pending IRM Review
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Yes
Ambition (see definition): Low
Implementation i
Description
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Citizen participation / Government accountability
What is the public problem that the commitment will address? •Korea’s objective anti-corruption indicators have improved, receiving a record high score in the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), ranking 33rd out of 180 countries, thanks to anti-corruption efforts. •However, Koreans have a strict perception of ‘corruption’, going beyond conventional corruption such as bribery and embezzlement to factor in the value of integrity shared by members of society in everyday life. This is leading to various unfair practices and privileges becoming a social issue*. Therefore, enhancing social trust has become necessary. * A wide range of unfair practices related to socioeconomic class, the socially privileged and irregularities in university admissions and hiring •With future generations such as the Millennials and people in their 20s and 30s especially dissatisfied with the unfairness in opportunities, robust measures to enhance fairness are required.
What is the commitment? • (Commitment) Discover and rectify the factors in everyday life that hinder transparency and fairness in opportunities and processes and that prevent the building up of social trust. - Scientifically and systematically analyze Big Data from petitions filed through the ‘e-People’ portal to identify fairness issues felt directly by the people. - In particular, focus on rectifying unfairness in opportunities in education and recruitment so that changes can be felt by the youth, who are highly sensitive to fairness issues. •(Expected impact) Build a palpable sense of social trust by rectifying unfair factors and privilege issues entrenched in social institutions closely related to people’s everyday lives.
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? •(Phase 1) Discover unfair factors in everyday life through Big Data analysis - Analyze citizen’s opinions on major fairness issues using petition data* collected in the Petition Analysis System, such as ‘e-People’ petitions, petitions filed via local government channels and citizen suggestions. * 12.3 million petition records were collected in 2020 - Identify tasks for improvement based on petition types, examples, requests and implications. •(Phase 2) Come up with directions for improvement through citizen communication and participation - Collect ideas for improvement through the promotion of citizen participation such as by issuing calls for ideas from adolescents and youth and reviewing suggestions from the People’s Integrity Policy Monitoring Group. - Boost communication with the public on major issues by carrying out votes, surveys and debates on the People’s Idea Box platform, gathering expert opinion and hosting both on- and off-line debates. •(Phase 3) Recommendations on rectifying unfairness in everyday life - Rectify unfairness in major policies and systems citizens encounter throughout their life cycle as well as in everyday life-related tasks* related to youth entering the workforce such as education, recruitment and housing. * Tasks involving certification exams, dormitory room allocation, scholarships, rental housing, etc. - Deal with fairness issues that arise with sudden social changes such as the trend of non-face-to-face consumption, to meet the expectations of the people. * (e.g.) A lack of laws and policies concerning the transition towards a sharing and subscription economy •(Phase 4) Build social trust by bringing about actual improvements in laws and systems through implementation management - Conduct periodic inspections (half-yearly) and assessments (yearly) on whether recommendations for policy improvements are being followed. * Reflect actual examples of improvements on the Anti-corruption Initiative Assessment and the Comprehensive Assessment of the Civil Complaint Service - Share with the public how citizen opinion and participation in addressing unfair practices in daily life are bringing about changes by widely disclosing improvements that are closely related to people’s everyday lives and have substantive ripple effects.
Exchange and Peer Learning N/A
Additional Information Relevant to Government Policy Task 2. To carry out anti-corruption reform for a corruption-free Korea
Milestone Activity with a Verifiable Deliverable Start Date End Date Analyze Big Data from petitions (frequently) September 1, 2020 August 31, 2023 Call for ideas from adolescents and youth (every year) September 1, 2020 August 31, 2023 Collect opinions through the People’s Idea Box platform (frequently) September 1, 2020 August 31, 2023 Recommendations on rectifying unfair practices in everyday life (frequently) September 1, 2020 August 31, 2023 Conduct inspections (half-yearly) and assessments (yearly) on implementation and promote improvements (frequently) September 1, 2020 August 31, 2023
IRM Midterm Status Summary
Action Plan Review
Commitment 7. Leverage big data to address unfair practices in daily life
● Verifiable: Yes
● Does it have an open government lens? Yes
● Potential for results: Modest
IRM End of Term Status Summary
Results Report
Commitment 7. Leverage big data to address unfair practices in daily life
This commitment aimed to leverage big data to discover and rectify unfair practices in everyday life. To this end, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) continued to monitor citizen complaints data from local governments’ “Saeol” administrative portal and e-People portal which integrates public communication channels across 1,074 agencies and institutions, including those for civil complaints, public proposals, and policy engagement. The ACRC continued to analyze over 12 million complaints (12.3 million in 2020, 14.83 million in 2021, and 12.69 million in 2022) collected from these sources and publish the “Voice of the People” big data newsletter weekly about trends in civil complaints and inconveniences (134 trending complaints noted in 2020 and 95 in 2021). [56] The newsletter is distributed to 1,270 institutions (including public institutions, research institutes, civic groups, and government agencies) and published on the ACRC website. [57] The ACRC also continued to conduct in-depth analysis and provide recommendations to relevant public institutions for addressing high-priority inconveniences. The number of analyses contracted during the implementation period dropped from 22 cases in 2020 to 7 in 2021. [58] Figures for 2022 were not available at the time of writing this report. To provide examples, the ACRC collaborated with the Ministry of Education in 2022 to analyze 5,036 complaints and recommend improvements related to middle school admission. [59] Also in 2022, the ACRC analyzed 1,405 complaints related to flooding of semi-basements and recommended measures to prevent damage to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety as well as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. [60] With complaints related to reserve military training surging in 2022, the ACRC analyzed more than 20,000 complaints and advised the Ministry of National Defense as well as the Military Manpower Administration to resolve major inconveniences, such as expanding holidays and improving meal quality. [61] The ACRC also began partnering with the National Assembly to utilize data-driven analysis in lawmaking. [62] Youth provided 38 ideas to improve government policies and administrative services. Inspections of how institutions address identified complaints and inconveniences were conducted and the results were reflected in the ACRC’s annual integrity assessments. Specifically, as committed, the ACRC continued to conduct semi-annual inspections and annual integrity assessment of public sector institutions. [63] The assessment expanded to 273 public institutions in 2023 (198 in 2020; 218 in 2021; 239 in 2022). [64] Overall, although all milestones were completed, no notable early results were achieved as this commitment did not expand the ACRC’s solid track record of analyzing and identifying complaints and inconveniences for public institutions beyond business as usual.