Shortened Administrative Procedures to Save Citizens from the COVID-19 Crisis

KOSHA Selected as an Exemplary Case of Proactive Administration in 2020
Improved Administrative Procedures and Duration to Contribute to COVID-19 Prevention

On the 24th, the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency held an awards ceremony for the Excellent Cases of Proactive Administration Competition.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Drastic reduction of mask safety certification period to 8 weeks, rapid proxy purchase of masks for call centers... These are actual administrative cases practiced during the intense war against COVID-19 that helped citizens in crisis.

The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency held an awards ceremony for the 'Proactive Administration Best Practices Competition' on the 24th.

The event was organized to establish a culture of proactively responding to administrative demands arising from changes in the domestic and international industrial safety and health environment, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This competition was open for one week starting June 29, targeting internal employees of the agency. Among the 23 submitted cases, six were finally selected considering public impact, expertise, and proactiveness.

The grand prize was awarded to a case that contributed to preventing infectious diseases among the public by improving safety certification standards for industrial protective equipment used as COVID-19 prevention supplies, enabling rapid supply of materials.

The administrative processing period for safety certification, which normally takes up to 75 days, was shortened to 19 days, contributing to the supply management of protective masks used not only in medical institutions, fire stations, and police stations but also by workers in industrial sites.

The excellence award was given to a case where the agency directly procured masks and specially supplied 550,000 public masks (KF94) on a paid basis to 40 large call centers.

The reason the public agency directly undertook mask procurement was due to an urgent need for mask supply for call center counselors after a COVID-19 cluster infection occurred in call centers in March.

This shortened the administrative period required for a separate private institution to be selected as the official mask seller for nationwide call centers, enabling rapid mask supply.

Additionally, six proactive administrative best practices were selected, including the first-ever domestic safety and health job fair creating jobs and exemplary cases of safe recruitment in public institutions through thorough COVID-19 infection prevention.

Park Doo-yong, Director of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, stated, “I hope proactive administration becomes a culture within the agency through this competition,” and added, “We will proactively identify various administrative demands and help solve problems.”

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