Inspection reform needed

There are only five days remaining in the National Assembly’s inspection of the administration. It was the first such inspection by the current Assembly.

The inspections were rushed, exposing their structural limits and negative side effects.

The Assembly should earnestly conclude the inspections and start reforming inspection laws from the inside out. Together with the ruling and opposition parties, the Assembly’s advisory committee on operations should make new rules as soon as possible through discussions and hearings.

The new rules should go into effect next year, along with the principle that inspections be carried out at any time instead of during certain periods.

If lawmakers fall into the habit of considering inspections to be a weapon or a source of compensation, there will be no reform. First-term lawmakers will need to lead the reform.

The ongoing inspections were hasty and conducted poorly. Over 500 government ministries and institutions were inspected in 20 days.

Vast amounts of material are submitted by the different institutions. Lawmakers need to work out what is going on at the institutions but there is just not enough time.

Inspections give the ruling and the opposition parties another excuse to quarrel. In an inspection by the culture, broadcasting and communication committee, policemen were deployed to prevent unexpected disruptions by YTN union workers, but opposition party lawmakers strongly protested the presence of the policemen.

The lawmaker in charge of the committee had to wage wordy warfare with the opposition lawmakers on behalf of the chairman.

The administrative and security committee wasted many hours of its inspections over the meaning of “infidelity.” Some lawmakers accused a minister of having “sold his soul.” A representative shouted at the chairman of a committee. Other lawmakers told fellow Assembly representatives that they were ignorant.

Of course, inspections have their good points. This time, the wrongdoings of a health vice minister were questioned and irregularities at public companies were probed.

But these can be done at any time by the standing committees. That’s why there are calls to make it possible to have inspections at any time instead of limiting them to a certain period. This is also the model used by developed countries.