The cap on rewards for reporting smuggling of drugs and other items will be scrapped outright. Rewards for internal whistleblowers will also be expanded to up to three times the current level.
On the 21st, the Korea Customs Service said that the Directive on handling reports of smuggling and paying rewards, which overhauls the reward payment system for reporting smuggling, will take effect. The agency explained that, as illegal activities have grown larger and more sophisticated, the measure was prepared to root them out by leveraging tips as well as existing enforcement networks.
The main points of this amendment are: ▲ abolishing the cap on rewards ▲ expanding rewards for internal reporters ▲ introducing a progressive payment system ▲ paying rewards for small cases.
First, it abolishes the existing caps on reward payments (up to 150 million won for general smuggling and up to 300 million won for narcotics). In addition, for "internal reports," reward payments will be expanded from double the existing amount to up to triple.
In addition, it will shift from a system that paid fixed rewards by case size to a "progressive system" that cumulatively pays a set percentage of the amount detected. This is designed to strengthen the linkage between case size and reward amounts and to provide greater compensation for reports of large-scale cases.
Lastly, the threshold has been lowered so that rewards can be paid even for small cases that had been excluded from eligibility. This is because tips on minor violations can become decisive leads for major cases or be used as connecting information between cases.
Lee Jong-uk, commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, said, "This institutional improvement aims to maximize the effectiveness of the reporting reward system by abolishing the cap on rewards to increase incentives for tips on large cases and by providing additional compensation for internal whistleblowing to block covert, sophisticated crimes or tax evasion."
