Expanding Digital Civil Complaint Services ... Increasing Support for Digitally Vulnerable Groups

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Revises the 'Act on Civil Petition Processing'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] As the untact culture has established itself as a new trend amid the 4th Industrial Revolution and the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the government is normalizing digital civil complaint services and accelerating the transition to a digital government.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 15th that it will promote digital-based untact civil complaint services that can be used without visiting agencies and will give a 40-day legislative notice starting from the 16th for a partial amendment to the "Act on Civil Complaints Processing," which strengthens the legal basis.

The amendment first elevates the "legal basis for operating electronic civil complaint windows," stipulated in the Enforcement Decree of the Civil Complaints Processing Act, to the level of law in line with the trend of civil complaint processing shifting online on-site. This clarifies the basis for issuing mobile electronic certificates using smartphones.

Additionally, to activate digital services from civil complaint application to result notification, the amendment stipulates the legal basis in the Civil Complaints Processing Act and allows civil complainants to receive the entire process electronically if they wish, from application to processing result notification.

For digitally vulnerable groups such as the elderly or disabled who are not familiar with digital devices or have difficulty accessing digital civil complaint services and thus must visit administrative agencies, conveniences such as fee reductions will be provided. For civil complainants unfamiliar with digital methods, they can conveniently receive processing results through their preferred methods such as direct consultation, phone, text message, email, or fax.

To protect civil complaint processing staff from illegal acts such as verbal abuse and assault, matters related to expanding a safe working environment will also be elevated from the enforcement decree to the law. Cases of verbal abuse and assault against civil servants handling complaints totaled 38,054 last year, a 10.3% increase compared to 34,484 cases in 2018.

Furthermore, not only the evaluation grades of the annual "Comprehensive Civil Complaint Service Evaluation" conducted on central government ministries, local governments, and education offices but also the evaluation results by category will be disclosed to strengthen the public's right to know and enhance the transparency and responsiveness of civil complaint administration.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to reflect various opinions from the public and related organizations during the legislative notice period in the amendment. The amendment can be viewed in the official gazette and on the Ministry of the Interior and Safety website, and opinions can be submitted via mail, fax, or the website.

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