The law imposes sanctions on officials for extorting and receiving illegal remuneration and abuse of authority, and on organizations and their employees for inducing officials to engage in such misconduct. The text of the regulation is available here (in Korean).
An important feature of the law is the wide range of subjects to which it applies: in addition to state and municipal employees, the definition of officials under the new law includes managers and employees of public service organizations, educational institutions and media companies, as well as their spouses.
The law is mainly aimed at regulating two main areas: the use by officials of their official position in their personal interests or in the interests of third parties and the receipt by officials of gifts in connection with the performance of their official duties.
Thus, the law defines 14 forms of use of official conduct, including unlawful issuance of licenses, permits, certificates, unauthorized disclosure of confidential information on auctions, expertise, patents, acceleration of completion of certain work and other forms for which sanctions are envisaged.
An official who commits such an offense faces a penalty of up to 2 years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 20 million South Korean won (about 1.2 million rubles), and a person who offers a bribe for an illegal action (inaction) faces a fine of up to 30 million won
(1.7 million rubles).
In addition, according to the new law, officials are prohibited from accepting gifts and other hospitality in connection with the performance of their official duties if their value exceeds 1 million won (about 58,000 rubles) at a time or 3 million won (174,000 rubles) at the end of a fiscal year. A wide category of preferential treatment, including the receipt of various kinds of valuables, property in the form of money, shares, real estate, as well as food, beverages, payment for entertainment and others, falls under the ban.
Clarifications on the application of the law, published by the Commission on Combating Corruption and Protection of Civil Rights, clarify the restrictions established by the law. Thus, the value of a gift should not exceed 50 thousand won (about 3 thousand rubles), the amount of gratuity - 100 thousand won (5.8 thousand rubles), payment for a visit to a restaurant - 30 thousand won (1.7 thousand rubles), the cost of an hour of lecture for ministers can not exceed 500 thousand won (29 thousand rubles), for deputy ministers - 400 thousand won (23 thousand rubles), and for journalists and teachers -
1.
Both the recipient and the giver of a gift may be imprisoned for up to 3 years or fined up to 30 million won if they fail to comply with the ban.
The law excludes a number of cases, including receiving departmental awards, paying for transportation, accommodation, meals on general terms for all participants in an official event, and others.
The Kim Yong Ran Law also introduces the concept of corporate liability for the first time. Under the provisions of the law, a company whose employee has been prosecuted for bribing an official may also be sanctioned for failing to prevent a corruption offense by its employee. At the same time, an organization's taking appropriate measures to prevent corruption, similar to the UK Bribery Act, may be grounds for mitigating or eliminating punishment against a legal entity.
The drafting of the law has been underway since 2012, when citizens' outrage was sparked by a series of high-profile court cases against high-ranking officials, and intensified in 2014 after the MV Sewol ferry disaster, whose improper condition was overlooked by local regulatory authorities.
Since 2015, when the draft law was first presented, there have been ongoing debates around it, primarily about the unjustified expansion of the circle of persons covered by it. However, in July 2016, the country's Constitutional Court found the provisions of the law to be in line with the constitution. According to preliminary estimates, the provisions of the law will affect about 4 million people and almost 40,000 organizations.
The need to adopt a separate legal act was also dictated by the fact that the norms of the current criminal legislation of the country did not allow to take control of the traditional practice of paying attention to officials, including payment for meals. According to experts, the entry into force of the law may cause losses of 11.6 trillion won (675 billion rubles) to the country's economic sectors, of which about 8.5 trillion won (495 billion rubles) will fall on the restaurant business.
In addition, it is still unclear which gifts will be classified as gifts received in connection with the performance of official duties and how they will be distinguished from the exchange of favors between friends or buddies. According to Supreme Court officials, the concept of "related to the performance of official duties" should not be interpreted too broadly, but it will only be possible to clarify its limits in the future as the relevant jurisprudence accumulates.