Yoon Administration Organizes 1,362 Plant Committees... Plans to Consolidate 3,000 by 2027

From May 2022 to the End of Last Year... A Total Decrease of 453
Number of Committees Also Declines... Establishing Efficient Operations

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration has reorganized a total of 1,362 so-called 'local government dormant committees' that were operating inefficiently by the end of last year since its launch. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety is promoting the consolidation and abolition of inefficiently operated committees as part of the government's national task of 'establishing a flexible and efficient government system.'

On the 3rd, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that as a result of reorganizing a total of 1,362 local government committees with poor meeting performance or inefficient operation since the government’s launch, the total number of local government committees decreased by 453.

Previously, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has been actively promoting the reorganization of committees by guiding local governments with the 'Guidelines for the Reorganization of Local Government Committees,' aiming to reorganize a total of 3,000 local government committees over five years from 2022 to 2027, and by inspecting reorganization performance monthly for all local governments.

Looking at the reorganized committees by type, there were ▲671 abolished or consolidated ▲28 converted to consultative bodies ▲651 made ad hoc ▲12 with specified continuation periods. By local government type, 388 committees (an average of 22.8 per entity) were reorganized in metropolitan cities and provinces, and 974 committees (an average of 4.3 per entity) in cities, counties, and districts.

Accordingly, the number of local government committees, which had sharply increased by an average of 1,030 per year (4.0% annually) over the past five years (2017?2022), decreased by 453 from 28,652 at the end of 2022 to 28,199 at the end of 2023 after the reorganization. By local government, the areas with the highest reduction rates in the number of committees compared to the end of 2022 were Daejeon Metropolitan City (17.3%), Chungcheongnam-do (15.9%), and Jeollanam-do (12.6%) among metropolitan cities and provinces.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety also changed seven laws that mandated the establishment of local government committees into discretionary provisions through local government demand surveys and consultations with relevant ministries, guiding local governments to reorganize these committees through consolidation and abolition. Going forward, the ministry plans to continue guiding local governments to abolish committees with poor meeting performance and consolidate committees with similar or overlapping functions.

Minister Lee Sang-min stated, "By intensively reorganizing inefficiently operated committees, the trend of increasing local government committees by about 4% annually has shifted to a decline. We will continue to work closely with local governments to boldly reorganize unnecessary committees to prevent budget waste and establish a flexible and efficient government system."

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