"Opposition Party to Block Political and Targeted Audits, Proposes Amendment to Board of Audit and Inspection Act as Party Policy"

"Board of Audit and Inspection, Effectively Reduced to a Sole Leadership Institution by Director and Secretary-General"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The Democratic Party of Korea announced on the 14th that it has submitted a revision bill to the Board of Audit and Inspection Act to the National Assembly's legislative affairs office to prevent the Board of Audit and Inspection's "political and targeted audits."

Park Beom-gye, chairman of the Democratic Party's Political Oppression Countermeasures Committee, and Kim Seung-won, chairman of the Legal Committee, submitted the "Political Audit Prevention Act" to the National Assembly's legislative affairs office that morning and told reporters, "The Democratic Party has proposed the amendment to the Board of Audit and Inspection Act, named the Political Audit Prevention Act, as a party resolution."

The core of the amendment is to strengthen the fairness and transparency of the Board of Audit and Inspection's audits. It includes disclosing the resolutions of the Audit Committee, appointing the Inspector General through an open external recruitment process, and placing the Inspector General under the direct control of the head of the Board. It also requires reporting the results of internal accounting audits and duty inspections to the President and the relevant standing committees of the National Assembly. The audit plan and changes, including the start of audits, are included in the Audit Committee's resolutions, and ongoing public official inspections require post-approval from the Audit Committee.

The basic principles of audits stipulated in the "Rules on the Handling of Audit Affairs of the Board of Audit and Inspection" are elevated and supplemented into law, clarifying the audit procedures and principles of handling affairs that must be observed during the audit process.

Additionally, the amendment includes provisions to △ restrict indiscriminate duty inspections of public officials △ introduce a system for lawyer participation and objection applications to prevent human rights violations △ prevent abuse of forensic investigations through selective extraction △ prohibit the announcement of interim investigation results △ ban audits of civilians △ strengthen penalties for illegal auditors.

Rep. Park said, "Although the Board of Audit and Inspection is a constitutional institution and a constitutional deliberative and collegial decision-making body, it has degenerated into a 'single-person system' institution dominated by the head of the Board or Yoo Byung-ho, the Secretary-General who is effectively the sole authority," adding, "They have carried out political audits, targeted audits, and 'prosecutor's second-division audits.' They have been conducting audits that violate numerous constitutional principles since July."

He added, "I am even afraid of how the contents of the indiscriminate and sweeping audits of numerous public institutions will be disclosed in the future and how the disclosure results will be connected to prosecution investigations," and said, "We will make every effort as a party to have the amendment to the Board of Audit and Inspection Act reviewed and passed as soon as possible."

The Democratic Party defined the audits conducted by the Board of Audit and Inspection against the Korea Coast Guard, the National Intelligence Service, the Korea Communications Commission, KDI (Korea Development Institute), and the National Election Commission as political and targeted audits aimed at the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

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