Not a day passes these days without corruption scandals grabbing headlines. On a daily basis, the media reports on corruption allegations involving presidential confidants, government officials, savings bank owners, police officers, etc. So much so that we are getting numb to corruption.

For many years, Korea has been committed to fighting corruption. Successive governments have made earnest efforts to crack down on it. As a result of a continued anti-corruption drive, Korean society has become much cleaner and more transparent than before.

Yet despite the undeniable progress, corruption is still rampant in Korea. Last year, Korea placed 43rd among 183 nations in a global corruption awareness table compiled by Transparency International. Korea suffered a drop of four notches from the previous year.

Korea scored 5.4 on a scale of zero to 10, with zero meaning corruption perception at its worst. Korea’s score was way below the OECD average of 6.92 and placed 27th among the 34 OECD countries.

The country’s score also was lower than that of such Asian neighbors as Singapore (9.2), Hong Kong (8.4), Japan (8) and Taiwan (6.1). The nation’s low score and ranking do not match with its rising global status as the world’s ninth largest exporting country and 11th largest economy in terms of GDP.

Corruption matters because it is the biggest obstacle to national development and economic growth. This point was driven home by a recent report released by Hyundai Research Institute.

The report suggests that Korea would be able to boost its falling potential growth rate to the 4 percent range only if it manages to bring corruption under control.

More specifically, the report says if Korea improves its corruption perception index to the OECD average, it would see its per capita GDP increase by $138.5 and its GDP growth rate rise by 0.65 percentage point additionally.

Corruption is like cancer. It plagues society as well as individuals. It undermines the ethical foundation of a democratic political system and a market economy.

If people are allowed to earn money or other material gains in an illicit way, it is bound to erode social trust and distort the decision-making processes, thereby wasting resources and hindering economic growth.

The government needs to step up efforts to curb corruption because without eradicating corruption, Korea cannot become an advanced country. If the government seeks to hold itself to a higher standard in every sector, one priority area is corruption control.

Currently, job creation is the government’s top priority. By curbing corruption, it can create more jobs and stimulate the economy, which is sagging amid the deepening global economic crisis.