The Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ), which serves as the government`s law enforcement agency, directs the investigation and prosecution of all criminal cases, including anti-bribery and corruption laws. For officials, the Office of the Ombudsman is responsible for investigating and prosecuting cases against officials at the same time as the MINISTRY of Justice The Kim Young-ran Act was not the first anti-corruption measure enacted in South Korea. The penal code “already prohibited national officials from receiving, demanding or promising bribes in the course of their duties, and also prohibited individuals from giving or offering bribes,” and the 1998 Law on Combating Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions “regulates corruption related to foreign officials.” [8] Article 13. Suspension and loss of benefits. Any public official who is subject to criminal prosecution on the basis of information valid under this Act or the provisions of the Revised Penal Code on Corruption shall be removed from office. If he is eventually convicted, he will lose all pension or bonus benefits under a law, but if he is acquitted, he will be entitled to reinstatement and to wages and benefits that he did not receive during the suspension, unless administrative proceedings have been initiated against him in the meantime. Republic Act No. 3019 (Anti-Corruption and Corrupt Practices Act) is the main anti-corruption law. It lists certain acts of public officials that constitute or may result in bribery or corrupt practices as follows: Section 1. Policy Statement. It is the policy of the Philippine government, in accordance with the principle that a public office is a public trust, to suppress certain actions of public officials and individuals that constitute or may result in bribery or corrupt practices. (j) knowingly approve or grant a license, permission, privilege or benefit to any person who is not qualified for or legally entitled to such license, permission, privilege or benefit, or to a mere agent or model of any person who is not qualified or is not entitled to it. Relief payments are not allowed under Philippine anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws, as payments to officials are penalized based on their official position.
Are the sanctions akin to a simple “pat on the wrist”? Over the past five years, a total of 39 people (involved in 26 cases) have been convicted by a criminal court on charges under the anti-corruption law alone. Of these, only five people were sentenced to prison and the other 34 to lighter penalties, such as a fine or a deferred sentence. At the same time, according to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (“ACRC”), a total of 1,025 people were sanctioned for violating the anti-corruption law at the end of 2020. These figures suggest that the proportion of people held criminally responsible and punished for violating the Anti-Corruption Law is relatively small compared to the total number of people subject to sanctions – meaning that most of those sanctioned were subject to non-criminal sanctions (i.e. fines or disciplinary sanctions). In this regard, a popular perception was that a violation of the anti-corruption law is punishable only by a “blow to the wrist”. However, according to an ACRC press release, 651 of the 1,025 people were fined and 236 people were disciplined. Specifically, in cases where services related to the recipient`s public missions were provided, the persons concerned were fined two to five times the amount they had provided/received, and the companies were also held liable on the basis of the responsibility of the executing agent themselves for the provision/receipt of a relatively small amount of services.
Cases where inferior services were provided included the following: (i) food and beverages of less than KRW 30,000 per person, (ii) a donation of less than KRW 50,000, or (iii) a 20% discount (KRW 13,750) on the golf club`s green fee through the use of corporate memberships.1 In addition, in addition to the 1,025 people, according to the ACRC, who have already been sanctioned, 1,086 people are currently under investigation or ongoing litigation related to fines under the anti-corruption law, and the number of people sanctioned is therefore expected to increase. The reason why a relatively small number of persons are subject to criminal sanctions under the Anti-Corruption Act may be that criminal sanctions are imposed only if certain fixed monetary thresholds are exceeded, i.e. only if the amount of benefit granted/received in a single case exceeds KRW 1 million or a total of KRW 3 million in a financial year. If the amount of benefits granted/received is below these thresholds, only non-criminal sanctions, such as fines, may be imposed. It would be wrong to conclude that a violation of the Anti-Corruption Act results in a light penalty based on the small proportion of offences punishable by criminal sanctions. On the contrary, the appropriate conclusion is that the high total number of violations generally sanctioned shows that the anti-corruption law is actively enforced. The Improper Solicitation and Corruption Act (colloquially Kim Young-ran Act) is a 2016 anti-corruption law in South Korea. The bill is linked to Kim Young-ran, the former head of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, who proposed it in August 2012, and is often referred to as the Kim Young-ran Act (or law or bill). [1] The bill was also translated into the Prohibition of Corruption and Corruption Act, although “Inappropriate Solicitation and Corruption Act” is the official name.
[2] [3] The law was passed in 2015 and came into force on September 28, 2016. [4] Finally, a corrupt official who acquires a financial interest in a company in order to subsequently grant the company a lucrative contract and take advantage of an expected increase in the company`s share price may be found guilty of insider trading. Camille Bianca`s practice focuses on the general settlement of criminal, civil and commercial disputes, as well as anti-corruption and anti-corruption issues. She has advised various clients in the fields of energy, aviation, outsourcing, pharmaceuticals, mining, mechanical engineering and manufacturing. She also has experience in managing commercial arbitration, particularly in the energy sector. He has acted in arbitration proceedings under icc, UNCITRAL and PDRCI rules with arbitration seats in Metro Manila, Hong Kong and Singapore. It should also be noted that in a prosecution for violating special anti-corruption laws, the motive or intent of the person committing the crime is usually not taken into account.
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