Proactive Regulatory Innovation Officials Protected by 'SME Ombudsman'

Continuous Promotion of Active Administration Exemption and Activation

The Small and Medium Business Ombudsman (vice ministerial level, Park Ju-bong) announced on the 5th that it is accelerating efforts to promote proactive administration through recommendations for disciplinary mitigation in regulatory innovation cases and the establishment of a Corporate Civil Complaint Protection Charter. The Small and Medium Business Ombudsman is legally responsible for improving unreasonable regulations and resolving difficulties faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies, as well as recommending exemptions from disciplinary actions for proactive administration and protecting corporate complainants.

Since 2013, the Ombudsman has been the only government agency independently granted the authority to recommend exemptions from disciplinary actions to other agencies and has been striving to establish a culture of proactive administration. In particular, after being selected last year as the best regulatory innovation case and an excellent comprehensive audit policy by a certain local government, the Ombudsman utilized its authority to recommend disciplinary mitigation and exemption to secure exemption from disciplinary action in a case where disciplinary demands were made within just a few months.

Park Ju-bong, the Ombudsman, pointed out, "It is unreasonable to reward those who have worked hard and achieved results with disciplinary action, let alone promotion," and added, "While each regulatory innovation is important, we will also continue efforts to remove obstacles to proactive administration."

Furthermore, the Ombudsman plans to focus on preventing passive administration by expanding the corporate civil complaint protection system. The Corporate Civil Complaint Protection Charter, operated by 15 ministries and all local governments since 2018, was additionally established last year by seven agencies including the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Financial Services Commission, Korea Communications Commission, Defense Acquisition Program Administration, and Military Manpower Administration. This year, the Ministry of Unification, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Fair Trade Commission, Korea Customs Service, and the Administrative City Agency have decided to newly establish the Corporate Civil Complaint Protection Charter, and 94 public institutions pre-consulted last year are also expected to establish it soon.

The Ombudsman will strive to ensure that the Corporate Civil Complaint Protection Charter is established and operated in all government ministries and plans to inspect and announce the implementation status of the related charters for ministries, local governments, and public institutions within this year. Park Ju-bong stated, "When any entrepreneur visits a government agency as a citizen, they receive the best treatment, but when they come as a businessperson, they are treated merely as a vendor," and added, "Creating a culture where businesspeople can be guaranteed their rightful rights is fundamental to administrative services related to businesses." He also said, "We will actively promote the Ombudsman's proactive administration exemption recommendation system and corporate civil complaint protection policies to related ministries, local governments, and public institutions to ensure they are more actively utilized and will do our best."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.