Assemblyman Jo O-seop, Local Relocation Public Institutions, Capital Region Workforce Retention 'Trick'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] As the second phase of relocating public institutions to local areas is being promoted to alleviate the concentration of population in the Seoul metropolitan area, it has been revealed that public institutions affiliated with government ministries that have relocated to local areas (individual relocations) have retained personnel without approval from the National Balanced Development Committee.

It is pointed out that government ministry public institutions, which should set an example, are causing the poor achievement rate of the planned population in innovation cities.

According to the data on the “Status of Unauthorized Metropolitan Area Retention by Public Institutions Relocated by Ministry” submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to National Assembly member Cho Oh-seop (Democratic Party·Gwangju Buk-gu Gap) on the 6th, 1,577 people from 24 relocated public institutions under 11 ministries remain in the metropolitan area without approval from the Balanced Development Committee.

The public institutions with the largest number of unauthorized metropolitan area personnel are Korea Testing Laboratory with 366 people, Korea Securities Depository with 283 people, and Korea Electric Power Corporation with 150 people, in that order.

By government ministry, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has 638 people, accounting for 40.5% of all unauthorized personnel, remaining without approval, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the competent ministry, also has as many as 96 people.

Among the relocated public institutions in innovation cities (individual relocations), 13 institutions including the Korea Arts Council and the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service either had no approved personnel initially or exceeded the approved number by more than twice.

According to Article 4 of the Special Act on the Creation and Development of Innovation Cities and the Post-Relocation Management Plan for Local Relocated Public Institutions, the head of the competent administrative agency is required to review and adjust the submitted local relocation plan and submit it to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for deliberation and approval by the Balanced Development Committee.

The total number of relocated personnel in innovation cities is about 44,000, and combining the approved retained personnel of 1,700 and the unauthorized retained personnel of 1,577 from 39 individually relocated public institutions in innovation cities, the total number of personnel remaining in the metropolitan area reaches 3,277.

As of 2019, the population of 10 innovation cities nationwide was 205,000, which is only 76.4% of the planned population of 277,000.

Therefore, only essential personnel who have gone through the Balanced Development Committee’s approval process should remain in the metropolitan area among the relocated public institution personnel, but the fact that nearly half of the retained personnel are unauthorized is being criticized as a kind of “trick.”

Assemblyman Cho said, “At the time of selecting public institutions to relocate to innovation cities, many subsidiaries and affiliated institutions remained in the metropolitan area due to ambiguous criteria,” and added, “Appropriate measures should be taken for unauthorized personnel, and the standards for metropolitan area retention should be more strictly supplemented to minimize the number of retained personnel and enhance the effectiveness of the policy.”

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