Roh names new audit head

President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday named Yoon Sung-sig, a professor at Korea University, as the new chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection to succeed Lee Jong-nam.
Mr. Yoon will be the chief of the government’s central audit agency. Mr. Lee, whose term ends Sept. 28, was handpicked to head the agency by former president Kim Dae-jung.
“The designate is a progressive academic equipped with practical knowledge in a wide range of social sciences, including economics, business administration, accounting and public administration, and he has a sense of balance,” said Jeong Chan-yong, the presidential adviser for Blue House personnel affairs.
“He is also a certified U.S. accountant and a globally recognized auditor,” Mr. Jeong added. “He has served on the presidential transition committee, as well as the presidential committee on government reform and regional deregulation. While serving on the latter committee, he directed its reforms of the Board of Audit and Inspection.”
Mr. Yoon, 50, will be formally appointed to his new post after a hearing and vote in the National Assembly.
Analysts said the Roh administration broke with the long tradition of naming renowned members of the legal profession to the post. Mr. Lee, for example, was a former prosecutor general.
Mr. Yoon is not only an academic with virtually no experience in government, but he is also the youngest designate in three decades, since Lee Seok-je was named to the post in 1971 at the age of 46.
The prevailing response from the audit agency and the political sector to Mr. Yoon’s appointment was, “Is it Yoon, really?” and “Yoon who?”
“Can you tell me his background?” Hong Sa-duk, the opposition Grand National Party’s floor leader, asked journalists.
Those who know Mr. Yoon, a native of Haenam, South Jeolla, said that he has long proposed shifting the emphasis of the audit agency to objective evaluations from the crackdowns on which it had focused.
Since Mr. Roh has promised to transfer the auditing powers to the National Assembly, political analysts forecast no major obstacles to the approval by the National Assembly of his nomination.

by Kang Min-seok