NTS staff who blocked, tracked identity theft named top civil servants

National Tax Service employees who blocked and tracked identity theft to protect taxpayers from wrongful liability have been named the agency's top proactive civil servants.

The NTS announced Thursday it had selected and honored 18 outstanding proactive civil servants for the first half of this year.

In the policy category, Park Ji-ho, an investigator at the Income Data Management Division, took the top honor for planning and developing an "identity theft protection service."

The service allows taxpayers to set blocks and alerts across six areas of national tax administration upon request and was put into practice in January.

In the field category, Lee Geun-su, an investigator at the Daejeon Tax Office, was recognized for uncovering the true perpetrator of an identity theft case and resolving a wronged taxpayer's grievance.

When a suspect in a fictitious tax invoice case claimed his identity had been stolen, Lee traced the businesses that had received the invoices, recovered 223 million won ($143,000) in evaded taxes, identified the identity thief and referred the case to police.

Award recipients receive benefits commensurate with their honor level, including the highest performance bonus rating, individual performance bonus points, excellence incentive pay and commendation leave.

The NTS also held judging Thursday for its creative learning club competition, in which 603 employees participated. Entries in the work expertise category included practical tools with strong on-the-job utility, such as a valuation guide for unlisted shares and a program to check for duplicate deductions and exemptions.

The work improvement ideas category featured submissions including an AI-powered program for analyzing case law by legal issue.

The NTS will select one top team, one excellence team and two encouragement teams in each category, with various benefits awarded to the winners.

The NTS said it would "support and encourage the spread of a firm commitment to proactive administration and an organizational culture that embraces challenge."