Oh Se-hoon: "Corrective actions on private consignment and subsidies are not easy due to the 'nail-driving' regulations during Mayor Park Won-soon's administration"

After the Announcement of 'Seoul City Reform' on the 13th, Daechi Civic Groups and Private Consignment Severely Criticize

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who has vowed to correct the indiscriminate budget allocations to civil society and civic groups, revealed that immediate corrective actions are difficult due to various "nail-down" regulations such as the 'Seoul City Private Consignment Management Guidelines' established during the tenure of the late former Mayor Park Won-soon. This statement comes just three days after he strongly criticized some civic groups, saying he would "normalize the abnormal."

On the 16th, Mayor Oh made this announcement through an unplanned briefing titled "Nail-Downs Blocking the Rectification of Seoul City." He said, "I recently presented improvement plans to set Seoul City straight, but unfortunately, immediate corrective actions are not easy," adding, "This is because of the 'nail-downs' such as ordinances, guidelines, and agreements hammered in by the previous mayor."

Mayor Oh first cited one of the "nail-downs" as the regulation allowing institutions that have received a comprehensive performance evaluation to be exempted from specific audits within the same year. He argued that this fundamentally blocks specific audits, which have different purposes from the comprehensive performance evaluation.

He explained, "The absurd private consignment guidelines created during the previous mayor’s term have made it impossible to exercise even minimal control over organizations carrying out consignment projects in a timely manner," adding, "Even if suspicions of illegality arise, the city audit committee cannot conduct immediate audits, which inevitably gives time to cover up and conceal mistakes helplessly."

He also mentioned the regulation that prohibits changing personnel even if the entrusted institution changes as another "nail-down." According to Seoul City ordinances and guidelines, the private consignment period is within three years. However, the 'Entrusted Institution Recruitment and Selection Operation Standards' included in the 'Private Consignment Management Guidelines' and the current 'Standard Private Consignment Agreement' used by Seoul City require that, unless there are special circumstances, the employment succession rate must be at least 80% even if the entrusted institution changes.

Mayor Oh criticized, "Who are these privileges for, which allow most employees to keep their positions without any responsibility even if the project performance is very poor or if various problems lead to the revocation of the project rights?" He pointed out, "While efforts to ensure employment stability are certainly necessary, unreasonable and uniform agreement conditions that do not align with common sense must be rationally revised and supplemented to fit the original intent."

Furthermore, he argued that regulations requiring the inclusion of civic group nominees in various committees should also be improved. Mayor Oh questioned whether these regulations have been operated according to their intended purpose, pointing out that among the approximately 220 committees in Seoul City, a significant number of members come from civic groups, creating a "league of their own."

He emphasized, "Not only the qualification review committees selecting entrusted institutions but also the committees selecting subsidy organizations have been dominated by civic group members who look after their own allies and members, forming their own league," adding, "There have even been cases where the head of a previous entrusted institution was appointed as the department head overseeing the entrusted institution selection process and committee operations."

He also condemned some entrusted institutions for mistaking the use of tax money as a right. Mayor Oh said, "It is truly deplorable that this systematized nail-down system has persisted for 10 years," adding, "I want to eradicate it all at once, but it is not easy. While avoiding unnecessary disputes as much as possible, I will correct past mistakes and upgrade the system if there are positive outcomes."

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