"Eunpyeong-gu Improves Handling of Information Disclosure Appeals, Stating 'Claims for Information Disclosure Are Not Appropriate'"

Concerns Over Serious Side Effects of Information Disclosure Requests Concentrated on Specific Individuals

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) announced that it will continue to promote improvement measures to enhance the transparency and accuracy of information disclosure tasks handled in accordance with the 'Act on Disclosure of Information by Public Institutions' this year as well.

According to the district, to properly handle the rapidly increasing information disclosure requests since 2019, from 2020, dedicated staff for information disclosure processing have been added and assigned, monitoring the receipt and processing status of objections to information disclosure, and guiding the relevant departments for appropriate handling.

Additionally, the district has improved and implemented work processing standards to ensure that information disclosure departments do not make non-disclosure decisions based on arbitrary judgment but obligatorily seek cooperation from the general information disclosure department (Civil Affairs and Passport Division).

Accordingly, the number of meetings and cases reviewed by the Information Disclosure Deliberation Committee to handle 'objections to information disclosure' has significantly increased from 5 meetings/14 cases in 2018 and 7 meetings/12 cases in 2019 to 15 meetings/64 cases in 2020.

This has served as an opportunity to strengthen residents' right to request information disclosure.

From January to the end of November 2020, the total number of information disclosure requests submitted to Eunpyeong-gu Office was 4,576, which is 1,392 more than the average of 3,184 for the other 24 autonomous districts in Seoul during the same period. Among these, requests made by the same individual (A) accounted for 1,120 cases, representing 24% of the total applications, while the remaining 76% (3,456 cases) were made by 1,736 people, averaging 2 requests per person excluding individual (A).

Furthermore, during the same period, 72 objections to the results of information disclosure requests were received, with 31 cases (43% of the total) filed by the same individual (A).

An official from Eunpyeong-gu Office stated, “It is a natural right for residents to request information disclosure from public institutions to satisfy their right to know, but requests made solely for the sake of requesting are not appropriate. This causes administrative waste in the current situation where all efforts are focused on responding to COVID-19 and can ultimately lead to harm to other residents, so a more mature civic consciousness is needed.”

They also added, “Eunpyeong-gu's information disclosure rate in 2020 was 96.6%, similar to the average of 96.4% for the 24 autonomous districts in Seoul during the same period. We ask for understanding that this is favorable relative to the number of requests. We will continue to guarantee residents' right to know about district administration to the fullest and strive to implement an open district administration based on communication and cooperation.”

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