Jung-gu holds 'Clean Jung-gu, Together' concert Tuesday, featuring candid talk with district mayor and Q&A with an anti-corruption attorney
Seoul's Jung-gu held the "Clean Jung-gu, Together" concert at the district office Tuesday afternoon, bringing all staff together around the shared value that "integrity and proactive administration are everyday attitudes."
The event was designed to help employees examine integrity standards in their daily work and spread a culture of proactive administration — but it unfolded in a candid, lighthearted atmosphere, with frank exchanges between staff and management set against pop-opera performances and sand art.
During a talk segment, Jung-gu District Mayor Kim Gil-sung fielded a pointed question from one employee: "How would you rate your own integrity?" He answered without hesitation. "I'd say about 70 out of 100," Kim said. "I'll work harder to fill in the remaining 30 points." The exchange set a tone of open communication throughout the event.
Kim added a candid personal reflection. "Since becoming district mayor, I feel I hold myself to a stricter standard," he said.
A Q&A session with an attorney specializing in anti-corruption law broadened the conversation to real dilemmas employees face on the job. Discussions centered on relatable scenarios — such as whether wearing wireless earphones at work could constitute disrespectful conduct toward a subordinate, and how to tactfully decline improper solicitations.
The event also included an awards ceremony honoring outstanding civil servants for proactive administration and winners of an integrity content competition.
Lee Ho-jin, an official with the Public Safety Division, took the top civil servant prize. Rather than outsourcing the work at significant cost, Lee personally developed an in-house system consolidating major-accident compliance checks and a vast body of relevant regulations into a single platform. The project cut costs while strengthening safety oversight. Lee shared with colleagues how he built the system and applied it to his work, describing the experience of solving a real on-the-ground problem himself.
The integrity content competition also drew considerable attention. Over the course of a month, residents and district office employees submitted a combined 237 entries, of which 15 were selected as winners.
The top prize in the staff category went to a short-form video titled "War Diary 2026," which drew strong responses for weaving the integrity spirit of Admiral Yi Sun-sin — who lived more than 480 years ago — into the everyday life of a junior civil servant in 2026.
In the residents' category, the top prize went to an Instagram-style illustrated story titled "Lower the Threshold, Revive the Alley!" — a piece rooted in a real Jung-gu story about how cutting red tape helped breathe new life into a neighborhood commercial district.
"Proactive administration means finding and fixing the inconveniences we have come to take for granted, and that starts with an organizational culture built on integrity, communication and mutual respect," Kim said. "I will create an environment where employees can work with conviction within the rules."
Jung-gu received a presidential commendation in August from the Ministry of Interior and Safety at its national proactive administration comprehensive evaluation — the first autonomous district in the country to receive the honor — and was named the top-performing institution for the second consecutive year.
Last year, the district also achieved a Grade 2 rating in the public institution comprehensive integrity evaluation, a two-grade improvement from the previous year and its best result since 2012.
seouldream01@heraldcorp.com
