[Interview] Seongjanghyun, Yongsan District Mayor, "Prioritizing 'Active Administration' Officials to Strengthen Yongsan's Competitiveness"

"Creating a Work Culture That Treats Public Officials Well Is the Shortcut to Proactive Administration" Emphasized... Declaring 2020 as the First Year of Proactive Administration in Yongsan-gu... Comprehensive Management of Proactive Administration Including Pre-Consultation and Training by the Audit Officer, Discovering Best Practices and Public Officials, and Performance Management

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] “The thoughts and attitudes of public officials can bring happiness or pain to the residents. I hope they think with an open mind about how administration can be helpful to the residents.”

Seong Jang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, emphasized this in an interview with Asia Economy, stating, “In the era of local autonomy, proactive administration by frontline public officials is the optimal way to increase resident satisfaction.”

At the end of last year, under Mayor Seong’s directive, the district established an execution plan for proactive administration. Accordingly, 2020 was declared the inaugural year of proactive administration in Yongsan-gu.

Mayor Seong said, “The rapidly changing social environment causes a gap with the field as laws and systems cannot keep up. It is important not only to improve unreasonable regulations but also to actively handle tasks for the public interest.”

In line with changing resident demands, the district was the first in the nation to build a youth hostel in Jeju Island. Since its opening in April 2017, over 100,000 people have visited, and it has received high approval from residents.

Since 2012, the district has embarked on finding hidden assets. As a result, it has newly discovered assets worth approximately 36.9 billion KRW, achieving significant outcomes. Not stopping there, the district also organized the identified asset status clearly and published a booklet titled “Yongsan-gu Asset Status.”

The district designated the Audit Officer as the department in charge of proactive administration and began full-scale plan execution. The Audit Officer oversees proactive administration from pre-consultation to education, discovering excellent cases and public officials, and performance management. The Administrative Support Division, responsible for personnel, provides incentives to outstanding public officials, and the Planning and Budget Division promptly supports legal advice related to tasks.

Pre-consultation is a system where, in cases of difficulty interpreting regulations or guidelines, opinions on regulation interpretation are sought in advance from the audit department according to the “Enforcement Decree of the Public Audit Act (Article 13-2).” Even if legal disputes or budget waste issues arise during the handling of matters that have undergone pre-consultation, the district plans not to impose disadvantages on the responsible officials or to partially reduce them.

The main procedure is that when a department requests consultation, the Audit Officer provides opinions after internal or external expert (Personnel Committee) review. If internal response is difficult, consultation can be requested from the Seoul City audit department (first stage) or central administrative agencies (second stage).

Mayor Seong added, “Making mistakes while working is acceptable, but not even trying is truly neglecting duty. Creating an organizational culture where working public officials are respected is the shortcut to proactive administration.”

In this regard, the district will select excellent cases and outstanding public officials of proactive administration in the second half of this year and provide various incentives. Major incentives include ▲reward leave ▲transfer to desired departments ▲priority selection for training ▲commendations ▲priority allocation of resorts.

The district plans to conduct regular education to inform employees about the proactive administration system and its purpose.

Additionally, related booklets will be produced and distributed to all departments (dong) and district-invested and affiliated institutions.

Mayor Seong concluded the interview by saying, “To enhance the competitiveness of Yongsan-gu, the central city of the world, the mindset of public officials is more important than anything else. I expect public officials to have an attitude of ‘how can it be possible’ rather than ‘it won’t work because...’ when implementing any policy.”

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