Don’t let others learn digital lessons from us

The government blamed a router malfunction for the complete breakdown in the administrative computer network that handles civilian documents and requests for issuance. The technical glitch the government admitted eight days after the crash underscores the poor management of the public administrative system under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. A simple technical snag could not be fixed immediately and it stopped civilian affairs for the entire day to cause inconvenience for a number of people.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min had to cut his overseas trip short to help control the situation. But administrative disruptions continued. Even the Public Procurement Service (PPS) network crashed, and the mobile residence certificate issuance stopped. Whenever such problems took place, the government pointed to the system overload every time.

The government’s electronic civil system showed its flaws multiple times, including during the non-contact Covid-19 pandemic. Vaccine bookings did not function due to overload in 2021, and most recently in June, online education information crashed. The disruptions continued despite the government’s repeated promise to bring the situation under control. Despite inner flaws, the government has gone all-out to pitch the digitalization of public administration system. The minister of the interior had been touring Portugal and the United States to publicize the strength of Korea’s digital administrative capabilities. The minister went back on the campaign in the United Kingdom, but again was disgraced with the news about the PPS system error back home.

The government and private sector held a seminar at Bexco exhibition center in Busan over the weekend to announce a public-private alliance on digitalization to make people’s lives more convenient. But the government brought about embarrassment with the failure in issuing mobile identity cards. The government had not minded the hardware while publicizing digital aptness.

The government is mulling over inviting large companies back to public software projects after strictly keeping them away since 2013. Many experts advised the government to turn to large tech companies for support when its online vaccine booking system turned out to be unstable two years ago. Given the harms on public lives from government system failures, more capable companies from the private sector must take charge. The vaccine system was restored only after LG CNS, a leader in providing digital transformation services, provided emergency help.

The government response must be strengthened too. Its latest announcement on a router problem was also different from the early finding. The government must carry out a comprehensive supervision and upgrades on its networks so as not to bring about any more embarrassment for its self-dubbing on a digitally capable government.