Yoo Yang-iwon-young: "Choi Jae-hyung, Auditor General, Turns Routine Audit into Energy Policy Tribunal"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] Yang Eui-won-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed out on the 20th that “Audit Chief Choi Jae-hyung bears significant responsibility for the controversy surrounding the Board of Audit and Inspection’s audit results on Wolseong Unit 1, which was merely a routine audit but has been treated as if it were a judgment on the energy transition policy.”

In a statement released that afternoon, Representative Yang said, “With the general election just around the corner, the Audit Committee held meetings for three consecutive days, attempting to force a resolution, and audit details known only to insiders were reported daily under exclusive headlines by certain conservative media outlets. Furthermore, Chief Choi himself stirred controversy by revealing political bias, calling it ‘a government policy task that received only 41% support in the presidential election.’”

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He added, “There is no choice but to suspect that Chief Choi has other motives for pushing the audit aggressively,” and said, “On August 13, a civic group filed a public interest audit request with Chief Choi. According to relevant laws and regulations, the Board of Audit and Inspection must immediately conduct a public interest audit.”

He emphasized, “The results announced by the Board of Audit and Inspection only expressed an opinion that the reliability of the economic feasibility evaluation has declined; they did not say the economic feasibility evaluation was wrong. The reason for the reduced reliability was also due to institutional shortcomings, and the Board was instructed to prepare related guidelines in the future.” Representative Yang added, “Economic feasibility evaluation is merely a prediction of future events and does not directly translate into actual profits. Wolseong Unit 1 is a nuclear power plant that has incurred an annual deficit of about 100 billion won over the past 10 years.”

He continued, “Rather, the audit results did not point out any problems such as the decision to shut down Wolseong Unit 1 being wrong or any breach of trust by the directors. It was only a warning to the institution due to some procedural shortcomings and minor disciplinary actions against related personnel.”

He also urged the opposition parties, saying, “It is time to stop the wasteful debate surrounding Wolseong Unit 1. Please refrain from using the abolition of nuclear phase-out as a political tool to create fake news and mislead the public at every opportunity, and sincerely join the true energy transition.”

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