Seoul Ombudsman Committee Investigated 336 Grievance Complaints Last Year... Requested 107 Actions

Investigation of 336 Complaints, 91 Recommendations in 61 Cases... 16 Opinions Expressed

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 18th, it was announced that last year, the Seoul Citizen Audit Ombudsman Committee investigated 336 grievance complaints and found unfair or unreasonable points in 61 cases, accounting for 18% of them. To correct or improve these issues, the committee made 107 action requests, including 91 recommendations and 16 expressions of opinion.

First, through recommendation decisions, the Ombudsman Committee ensured that unreasonable points were corrected or improved. Despite the fact that Seoul City was the one who indefinitely postponed the hosting of international events due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, contrary to the original contract, the committee recommended stopping the practice of holding the contracted company responsible for breach of contract when they abandoned the contract and closed their business. Additionally, it recommended canceling the abnormal calculation of late fees imposed on citizens who failed to pay shared property lease fees on time, which resulted in an extra charge of about 2.5 million KRW, exceeding the normal late fee of about 1.7 million KRW, thereby preventing economic damage to citizens.

Regarding the autonomous district that unjustly canceled taxi driver qualifications due to clear official negligence, causing economic and psychological harm such as forcing resignation from taxi companies, but only took measures to revoke the qualification cancellation without any damage recovery, the committee recommended taking steps to enable compensation procedures under the State Compensation Act.

Furthermore, even though there is no obligation to provide accommodations under the Disabled Welfare Act to disabled applicants for recruitment exams, the committee recommended that all 25 investment and contribution institutions under Seoul City proactively provide such accommodations and that Seoul City establish ordinances or internal regulations equivalent to the Disabled Welfare Act. The committee also recommended Seoul Metro Corporation improve the work practice of rejecting applications for opinion advertisements to be posted in subway stations without providing reasons for rejection or guidance on the appeal process, and revise related internal regulations, thereby further protecting citizens' rights and preventing rights violations.

In addition, the committee corrected practices that did not comply with laws, such as operating the ‘exclusive lane violation citizen reporting procedure and fine imposition standards’ differently from the Road Traffic Act, resulting in no fines being imposed even when vehicles violating bus-only lanes were identified, and not imposing fines on child welfare facilities that violated the obligation to check sex crime records before hiring workers under the Youth Protection Act, despite confirming the violations.

More detailed information on these cases, including other representative grievance complaints investigated and handled by the Ombudsman Committee last year, can be found in the ‘Grievance Complaint Cases’ section on the Ombudsman Committee’s official website.

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