Board of Audit Accepts Corruption Investigation Agency's Self-Inspection on Telecom Surveillance Allegations... "Further Inspections Needed"

The Corruption Investigation Office excludes cases under investigation or trial

The Board of Audit and Inspection accepted the self-inspection results stating that no issues were found regarding the suspicion of 'telecommunication surveillance' in the first regular audit since the launch of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO). However, it pointed out that additional inspections are necessary as the CIO's self-inspection was conducted excluding cases under investigation or trial.

On the afternoon of the same day, the Board of Audit and Inspection announced the results of the regular audit on four institutions, including the CIO and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

The Board reviewed the appropriateness of the CIO's internal inspection conducted by the Telecommunication Data Inquiry System Improvement Task Force (TF) and the subsequent self-inspection by the CIO Human Rights Inspection Office, rather than conducting a direct audit.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Board's regular audit, the CIO requested telecommunication data from January 21, 2021, to August 31, 2022, and among 6,488 phone numbers received, inspected 1,896 phone numbers (29.2%) excluding those involved in ongoing investigations or trials.

During this process, the CIO stated that the exercise of delegated and final decision-making authority was lawful, and considering that out of the 1,896 telecommunication fact confirmation data (such as call time and base station location) obtained through court warrants, only 1,146 phone numbers?about half?were requested for personal information of the number owners (telecommunication data inquiry) through telecommunication companies, the principles of appropriateness and proportionality were not violated.

The Board of Audit and Inspection stated, "Upon reviewing the CIO's self-inspection results, no issues were identified; however, since the self-inspection excluded cases under investigation or trial, additional inspections will be necessary once investigations or trials conclude."

Meanwhile, in the audit of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, the Board requested disciplinary action against related personnel, citing that during the installation project of handheld item scanners worth approximately 1 billion KRW at local prosecutors' offices from 2019 to 2021, the person in charge applied scoring criteria different from the announced proposal guidelines in the technical evaluation and provided these to the evaluation committee members.

Additionally, the Board pointed out that the CIO arbitrarily changed evaluation criteria differently from the announced contents when signing a big data system purchase contract worth 271 million KRW last July, urging caution.

Furthermore, the Board urged caution regarding the failure of 18 district prosecutors' offices, including the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, to notify the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the criminal trial results of 32 doctors and pharmacists who were sentenced to imprisonment or higher for violating the Medical Service Act and other laws from 2020 to October last year. Among these 32 individuals, 15 were found to still be practicing medicine during the audit process, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare was notified to prepare measures for license revocation for these 32 individuals.

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