The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission can pay compensation of up to KRW 3 billion to the reporter if the national or local government recovers or increases revenue through public interest reporting.
However, compensation is paid only to internal public interest whistleblowers who are highly likely to suffer disadvantages in terms of status, personnel, or economic conditions due to public interest whistleblowing.
However, it is pointed out that the compensation payment rate for public interest reporting is gradually decreasing, and the purpose of the system is not being saved.
■ Even if 4 billion is returned through a public interest report, “no relation” is not given compensation Let’s
look at the case of Mr. A, who worked at a nursing hospital in Incheon.
In 2014, Mr. A filed an internal complaint to the Civil Rights Commission about the fraudulent receipt and receipt of medical care benefits by the director of the hospital where he worked.
The year after the accusation, an investigation was conducted based on the data submitted by Mr. A, and 4 billion won, including medical benefits from the Health Insurance Corporation, which the hospital had unfairly taken, was returned.
However, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission paid only 8.71 million won in compensation for the amount collected by the hospital, excluding the amount of 4 billion won recovered by the Health Insurance Corporation, and Mr. A filed a lawsuit with the ACRC in 2021 to request more compensation.
In this regard, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission confronted that the Health Insurance Service had already captured the hospital’s allegations before Mr. A’s public interest report, and it was not known whether there was a direct connection between the return decision and Mr. A’s report.
The first trial court upheld Mr. A’s hand, saying that the data submitted by Mr. A were decisive in recovering 4 billion won from the NHIS, and the second trial court also made the same decision in June of this year.
In particular, the second trial judge determined that the ACRC had an obligation to review the relevance between the public interest report and the decision to withdraw it.
The ACRC gave up its appeal to the Supreme Court last month, and the second trial decision was eventually confirmed.
■ Even if you win the lawsuit, you can’t get compensation… “There is no regulation
on damages for delay” However, the long-awaited compensation from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission has not come out.
When Attorney Jeong-gyu Choi, the legal representative of Mr. A, asked the ACRC when he would pay compensation, the ACRC said to wait for the results of the compensation hearing to be held next month.
Attorney Choi said, “We didn’t receive the compensation we should have received on time due to the illegal disposition of the Civil Rights Commission, and in a situation where we even filed a lawsuit, shouldn’t we pay at least 5% of delayed damages according to the civil law?” It’s done, I’m so tired.”
When the coverage team inquired about the related information, the Anti-Corruption Rights Commission said, “There is no regulation on delayed interest in the Anti-Corruption Rights and Civil Rights Commission Act.” We will move forward quickly,” he said.
■”Only 4% of compensation for public interest reporting”
When looking at how much compensation the government pays to whistleblowers in preparation for the amount saved by public interest whistleblowers, the ratio has dropped to 4% as of the first half of this year.
This means that even if the government saves about 12.4 billion won through public interest reporting, the reporter will receive about 500 million won in compensation.
The number of public interest complaints itself is also declining.
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission explained메이저놀이터, “With the revision of the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act in 2016, the law was amended to pay compensation only to ‘internal whistleblowers’, and the number of public interest whistleblowers and compensation applications is on the decline.”
Looking at the number of compensation payments over the past 10 years, it peaked at about 2,400 in 2016 and then decreased to about 1,700 in 2017 after the law was revised.
It decreased to 26 cases in the first half of this year from about 200 cases in 2019 and 2020.
Public service whistleblowing compensation quotation rate is also on the decline
Even if you file a public interest report, the percentage that results in the actual payment of compensation is gradually decreasing.
The ratio of compensation to be paid by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Compensation Review Committee was 95% in 2019, but it fell to 63.4% in the first half of this year.
Choi Jong-yoon (Democratic Party), a member of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, said, “The current compensation system seems to be insufficient as an economic incentive to encourage public interest and corruption reporting. In particular, the rate of public interest reporting compensation is rapidly decreasing, so countermeasures are urgently needed.”
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