Gyeonggi-do Issues Institutional Warning to 'Namyangju-si' for Refusing Legal Audit... 16 Disciplined

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has issued a 'formal warning' to Namyangju City for refusing and obstructing a lawful audit. In addition, the province has requested Namyangju City to impose severe disciplinary actions on four public officials who actively participated in the audit refusal, and light disciplinary actions on 12 others, including the deputy mayor.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 17th that Namyangju City systematically obstructed the audit by refusing to submit preliminary investigation materials for the comprehensive audit, causing the audit to be suspended, and subsequently refused specific and service audits, thereby violating laws such as the 'Local Public Officials Act' and the 'Administrative Audit Regulations for Local Governments,' infringing on the province's audit authority.

According to Gyeonggi Province, in April, the province notified Namyangju City of the comprehensive audit plan and requested the submission of materials necessary for the preliminary investigation three times in accordance with Article 7, Paragraph 2 of the 'Administrative Audit Regulations for Local Governments.'

However, despite the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's authoritative interpretation that "it is not necessary to limit the request for preliminary investigation materials to specific affairs," Namyangju City ignored this and continued to refuse submission, demanding that any illegal matters related to autonomous affairs be specifically identified and notified.

In May, staff from the provincial audit office visited Namyangju City directly to conduct the preliminary investigation and requested materials related to suspected legal violations three times, but Namyangju City did not comply.

In particular, it was confirmed that Namyangju City's audit office continued to refuse Gyeonggi Province's requests for material submission even after receiving materials from the relevant departments, and during the preliminary investigation period, they obstructed face-to-face investigations by blocking audit officials' access to the audit site without prior consultation or consent with the province, thereby systematically and deliberately hindering the preliminary investigation activities.

As a result, the province judged that normal audit proceedings were impossible and suspended the preliminary investigation and comprehensive audit on May 26.

Subsequently, from June 4 to 9, a 'Comprehensive Audit Refusal Specific and Service Audit' was conducted targeting Namyangju City to identify the causes, responsibility, and legal violations related to the audit obstruction.

However, Namyangju City again did not respond to the province's request for preliminary investigation materials for the specific and service audit, and when notified of four audit targets, including 'Comprehensive Audit TF Activity Matters,' officially refused the audit through a formal document, stating, "This specific and service audit is unfair, and we will no longer undergo the audit."

Moreover, during the specific and service audit period, the Gyeonggi Province audit team repeatedly requested attendance and responses from 16 related public officials, including Namyangju City's audit officers, via email, phone, and official documents, but all requests were ignored. They also requested oral examination attendance three times (an audit procedure involving questioning the audited persons and recording the content), but these were also refused, thereby obstructing legitimate audit activities.

In particular, during this process, it was revealed that Namyangju Mayor Jo Gwang-han personally led the refusal of material submission, attendance, responses, and oral examination procedures by Namyangju City employees through official document enforcement, position statements, and internal bulletin boards, according to the province.

Kim Hee-soo, the provincial audit officer, stated, "The organized and deliberate refusal and obstruction of the comprehensive and specific service audits is an act of 'anti-constitutional order' denying the rule of law and a 'disruption of national discipline.' We will continue to respond strongly and without exception to crimes that deny the rule of law and attempt to reign above the law."

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