Gidae-seo Buk-gu Councilor: "Policy Aide System Differs from Original Purpose"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] Gidae Seo, a member of the Buk-gu Council in Gwangju Metropolitan City, pointed out during the 5-minute free speech at the Buk-gu Council plenary session held on the 4th that “the policy advisors, who are professional fixed-term personnel assisting the Buk-gu mayor, are performing only political functions that differ from the original purpose of the system introduction.”

Councilor Gidae Seo stated that the original purpose of reinforcing two professional fixed-term personnel at the Buk-gu Office was to focus on external cooperation and policy decision support tasks, but while the external cooperation tasks are being performed according to their original intent, the policy decision support tasks are not fulfilling their inherent roles suitable for the professional fixed-term system.

Councilor Seo said, “I intended to question based on the materials submitted during the recent administrative audit, but the policy advisors themselves showed a careless attitude, saying it was inappropriate to appear at the audit and to respond,” adding, “Because they focus only on political functions rather than policy support roles, the submission of materials was a mess, and even communication and cooperation with the council, which can be considered their main task, are not properly carried out.”

He continued, “The role of policy advisors is to provide advice to the head of the district on various policy alternatives as well as improvement measures for unreasonable administration that help the development of the district,” and explained, “Personnel close to the mayor who come from outside should not be recognized as special beings, should not dominate from above, and must assimilate with regular employees from a realistic perspective.”

He also urged, “If public officials receive work instructions from the mayor’s assistant personnel, the workload will increase and the existing local government organizational structure may be shaken, so when hiring professional fixed-term personnel, they should faithfully perform their inherent roles suitable for policy decision support tasks such as establishing and deciding major district policies and collecting materials.”

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