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Independent inspector should end the vicious cycle

Posted March. 26, 2015 07:31,   

한국어

One of President Park Geun-hye’s campaign pledges – an independent inspector monitoring corruption of the president’s relatives -- has been finally put into action in two years after her inauguration. The National Assembly held a confirmation hearing for Lee Seok-soo, independent inspector nominee, on Tuesday and adopted the confirmation hearing report. His appointment was made in one year after the legislation of the relevant law due to the tug of war between the ruling and opposition parties. The independent inspector should have a strong sense of responsibility in monitoring the president’s relatives or confidants for possible corruption such as influence peddling or bribing for a job.

Corruption cases involving a president’s confidants have repeated over and over again, undermining confidence in the government. When the Park Geun-hye administration declared war against corruption recently, prosecutors started an investigation into a former senior presidential secretary under the former Lee Myung-bak administration for corruption allegations. The appointment of an independent inspector should end the vicious cycle of the current administration investigating the former administration’s corruption cases.

An independent inspector will be supported by government officials seconded from the Prosecutors’ Office, the National Police Agency and the National Tax Service for intelligence gathering and investigation. However, as the inspector does not have a legal right to investigate, he could end up as a scarecrow. To help the independent inspector to play his due role, the government should provide support human resources and guarantee his political neutrality and independence. Support from President Park will be all the more important. Another issue is an overlapping scope of work with the office of the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, which was raised during the confirmation hearing. Fine-tuning needs to be made so that the independent inspector does not become powerless in probes into corruption cases involving the president’s relatives. As Lee pledged not to allow any sanctuaries, he should monitor arrogation or irregularities of even the senior presidential civil affairs secretary.

The subject of monitoring will be limited to the president’s spouse, cousins or closer relatives, and senior presidential secretaries or higher positions. The original bill had included lawmakers, the heads of power organizations and cabinet members, but lawmakers passed a bill excluding themselves as well as the heads of power organizations and cabinet members. Both ruling and opposition parties are always hand in glove when they do such things. It is wasting taxpayers’ money to assign an independent inspector and up to 30 investigators to monitor dozens of people. As two related revised bills are pending in the National Assembly, lawmakers should change the bill to include level 1 or higher government officials at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, the heads of power organizations and cabinet members and grant the independent inspector mandatory investigative rights.