Vanishing Media Audits

Tax Chief Says No Documents Existed in '99

The commissioner of the National Tax Service told parliament Monday that no records of a tax audit conducted from March to December 1994 on the nation's media companies were in government files when he took office in May 1999.

He testified that the documents were destroyed before the end of the mandatory five-year period for keeping records.

"I looked into the matter when I took office in May 1999, but I found that documents regarding that audit were not kept," Commissioner Ahn Jung-nam of the National Tax Service said.

Mr. Ahn said that he became aware that the documents were destroyed when the tax authority audited a press company, identified only as "S," in 1999.

The commissioner, speaking before the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Committee, said he did not know when the documents were destroyed.

Committee members from the ruling Millennium Democratic Party charged that the Kim Young-sam administration destroyed the papers before leaving office in February 1998.

Lawmakers of the opposition Grand National Party called for an investigation into the prosecutors' office.

"If the central tax authority cannot provide a clear answer, prosecutors should investigate and hold those responsible accountable," Rep. Ahn Taek-soo of the opposition said.

The opposition party said it is willing to agree to a parliamentary probe into the disappearance of the 1994 documents only if the ruling party agrees to a probe into an ongoing media audit.

Tax audits of the nation's 10-largest media companies lie at the center of the latest round of partisan fighting in the Assembly. It was touched off when a weekly magazine, "Sisa Journal," reported that the ruling camp drafted three "press-control" proposals.

The opposition immediately demanded a parliamentary probe, charging that the documents prove that the Kim Dae-jung administration is working to muzzle the press.

by Ko Jung-ae