Seoul City Appoints Two Members to Citizen Audit Ombudsman Committee

Appointing Kim Jeong-a, Former Seongbuk-gu Human Rights Center Director, and Park Jun-woo, Former Together Citizens' Action Secretary-General, as New Citizen Audit Ombudsman Members

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government has appointed Kim Jeong-a, former head of the Seongbuk-gu Human Rights Center, and Park Jun-woo, former secretary-general of Together Citizens' Action, as citizen audit ombudsman committee members as of the 1st, following an open recruitment process. The citizen audit ombudsman monitors city administration from the citizens' perspective and protects citizens' rights.

The newly appointed Kim Jeong-a served as secretary-general of the 'People's Human Rights Foundation' and head of the Seongbuk-gu Human Rights Center, and is also currently active as a substitute service review committee member for the Ministry of National Defense. With experience in citizen rights advocacy and administrative work, she was evaluated as a suitable candidate to fulfill the role of an ombudsman committee member, an independent investigator in a collegial administrative body.

The newly appointed Park Jun-woo also served as secretary-general of 'Together Citizens' Action' and as a bioethics committee member at the national policy research institute, the National Bioethics Policy Institute. Having years of experience in budget monitoring of administrative agencies and preventing information rights violations, he was deemed appropriate for the citizen audit ombudsman committee to oversee city administration and protect citizens' rights.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government's citizen audit ombudsman are part-time fixed-term public officials (working 35 hours per week) who independently conduct citizen and resident audits requested by citizens regarding illegal or unfair administrative actions by Seoul city and autonomous districts, investigate grievances, and monitor and evaluate public projects for a term of three years.

Park Geun-yong, chairman of the citizen audit ombudsman committee, stated, "To activate citizen audit requests and participation, we lowered the audit request age from 19 to 18 and launched a committee website, enabling signatures for audit requests, which were previously only possible offline, to be submitted online." He added, "In the future, when citizens face or become aware of violations or unfair administrative actions by Seoul city or autonomous districts that infringe on their rights, we hope they will first think of and actively utilize the Seoul Metropolitan Government Citizen Audit Ombudsman Committee."

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