Enter 2021.01.20 06:00
‘Committee Republic’ reenactment after the establishment of the Munmun government Political parachute officials surged
In fact, the role of ministries as a’secretariat-based committee’ in a year from 36 to 43
“Expansion of jobs for public officials through administrative organizations outside of the government… Increased budget for organizations”
“Consult with the Minister of Public Administration and Security before creating a committee”
The Moon Jae-in administration, which has increased more than 90,000 public servants during the three years in power, is increasing the number of committees to carry out national tasks that are oriented toward the ideological tendencies of passports, such as income-led growth, the northern economy, and the post-nuclear war. The number of committees operated by the Moon Jae-in administration was 585, overtaking 579 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, which was called the’Committee Republic’.
Among them, there were 82 committees under the direct control of the President and the Prime Minister as of the end of June last year, 5 more than the previous government inauguration (77). These committees are in fact acting as ministries because the vice-minister-level (level 1) bureaucracy is responsible for the business and there are more than three or four working departments. Organizations that act as ministries outside of the governmental organization are emerging here and there. The government budget put into the committees under the direct control of the President and Prime Minister has also doubled from 47 billion won in 2016 to 90 billion won last year.
In particular, many of these committees have been appointed as public officials from political parties from the ruling party in the name of supporting the ruling forces in pursuing state affairs. There are also reactions that people with strong political colors are helping to increase the number of reckless civil servants by parachuting down because they are close to the ruling class.
According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security on the 19th, at the end of June last year, there were a total of 585 administrative agency committees, an increase of 11 compared to 2019. The new committees created last year are the’National Climate Environment Conference to Solve the Fine Dust Problem’ and the’Materials, Parts, Equipment Competitiveness Enhancement Committee’, etc.
The administrative agency committee is a committee established by the president, the prime minister, and central administrative agencies, excluding constitutional agencies or central administrative agencies (Fair Trade Commission, Korea Communications Commission, etc.). It is an organization that does not exist in the Government Organization Act, and is a temporary organization composed of presidential decrees to achieve special purposes. The temporary organization is operating like a permanent organization.
Kim Dae-jung government The number of government committees increased from 368 in 2003, just after the end of the term, to 573 in early 2008, just after the end of the Roh Moo-hyun administration’s term. The number of government committees decreased to 431 in 2010 through restructuring in the Lee Myung-bak administration, and increased to 556 after passing through the Park Geun-hye administration, and to 585 in the Moon Jae-in administration.
The 17 committees, including the Jobs Committee, the Fourth Industrial Revolution Committee, the Low Fertility Committee, the Northern Economic Cooperation Committee, and the Policy Planning Committee, are advisory committees in form, but they operate the secretariat by dispatching personnel from central administrative agencies, etc., directly under the President.
It was said that the special committee for income-led growth under the Policy Planning Committee was chaired by Hong Jang-pyo, former head of the Blue House until the end of last year, and that it has more power than most economic ministries. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance was dispatched to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, as well as government officials at the level of managers to entrust various tasks, and members from outside the Democratic Party were appointed as expert committee members to exercise the authority of the scribe and secretary.
Some committees have mammoth-level organizations with more than 100 members. According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, as of December 31, 2019, there are 125 government officials under the Special Investigation Committee on the Humidifier Disinfectant Case and the 4.16 Sewol Issue Disaster. Excluding 33 public officials and 3 police officers and firefighters, 89 people are filling their seats with political figures as special positions. Of the 84 national civil servants belonging to the Military Net Accident Investigation Committee, 44 out of a total of 84 are paratroopers from outside.
◇Management blind spot… There is no statistics on the rank and number of personnel belonging to the government committee
The committees, which have increased in a row, are in the blind spot of government management. Because they are ideologically oriented by the ruling class, they tend not to follow the government’s budget controls. According to Rep. Lee Ju-hwan, the 82 presidential and prime minister’s committees’ budgets doubled in four years from 44.7 billion won in 2016 to 89.1 billion won last year. The budgets of these committees are pointed out as a factor that encourages lazy management of the government’s budget, as the nature of expenses to maintain the organization itself is stronger than business budgets such as travel expenses and meeting allowances, such as personnel expenses, general accommodation expenses, and business promotion expenses.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security, which manages the current status of administrative agency committees, did not have statistics on the position and current personnel of each committee’s secretariat. Since the Roh Moo-Hyun administration, which became a problem of committee turmoil, the government has prepared a report titled’Status of Administrative Agency Committees’ at the end of June every year and released in August. However, this report is at the level of aggregating documents compiled by the departments in charge of each committee. The items to be counted are limited to the number of members of the committee, the performance of the meeting, the size of the budget, the basis for establishment and the date of formation. It is not possible to grasp the number or rank of full-time or part-time general public officials working on each committee at a glance, and in order to know this, you have to inquire directly with the relevant committee or the relevant department.
With regard to the indiscreet increase of various committees, serious issues are being raised within the government. On November 23, last year, the Presidential Council on Climate and Environment, a committee directly under the presidential committee, to solve the problem of fine dust, announced the need to consolidate and abolish the four committees within the government that function similarly to them. This is an upbringing measure introduced by similar committees such as the Fine Dust Special Countermeasure Committee under the Prime Minister’s Office, the Green Growth Committee, and the Sustainable Development Committee under the Ministry of Environment.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security, which oversees various committees, also put a brake on the confusion of committees. The’Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Committees Affected by Administrative Organizations’ was amended to mandate that administrative agencies such as each ministry meet with the Minister of Public Administration and Security in order to create a new committee through a State Council meeting in August last year. This was to prevent each ministry from forming a committee arbitrarily.
According to the Office of Rep. Lee Ju-hwan, the power of the people, 77 of the 82 committees under the direct control of the President and Prime Minister have not held meetings at all throughout the year (accumulated in the last five years). Although the budget has increased, the average annual meeting performance of these committee members from 2016 to this year has remained in place at 12 → 10 → 10 → 14 → 13 cases. In particular, the National Human Resources Commission and the Commission on Cultural Diversity have never held a meeting for five years, and the 5·18 Democratization Movement-related Compensation Support Committee has not held a meeting for the past three years.
Another problem is that the committees, which have spent billions of budgets and dozens of government officials, including high-ranking government officials from central ministries, are not working well. The Jobs Committee, which spent 5.6 billion won last year, held five plenary sessions, a win-win community job forum, and a Korean version of the New Deal and a job conference. However, while the number of jobs per year declined by 218,000 last year compared to the previous year, it was the worst since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) crisis.
The Northern Economic Cooperation Committee, which spent 2.47 billion won last year, ended up doing two plenary meetings and three seminars. This is because the consolidation of inter-Korean relations has made it difficult to plan economic cooperation between North Korea and Russia. The same is true that the National Economic Advisory Council, a presidential advisory body established by the Constitution, is poorly operated. Since the inauguration of President Moon Jae-in, it has been held only four times. The vice-chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council, who is elected by a renowned economist, is generally a position to receive a ministerial protocol, but the reality is that there are very few outside activities that actually help government policy.
There is another problem that leaves the government to decide and take responsibility for the committee. Representative examples include the Gimhae New Airport Verification Committee under the Prime Minister’s Office, which revived the theory of constructing a new airport on Gadeok Island, a civil complaint in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam, and the Public Debate Committee for Shin-Kori Units 5 and 6, which made it an excuse to regulate the speed of the government’s unreasonable nuclear power plant policy. On November 17, last year, the Gimhae New Airport Verification Committee under the Prime Minister’s Office stated that “the promotion of the new Gimhae Airport requires a fundamental review.”
Since then, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport have given credit and the National Assembly is discussing related legislation, but in fact, the Verification Committee made the decision to return the project that was confirmed and promoted 10 years ago to its origin. On October 20, 2017, the Public Debate Committee for Shin-Kori Units 5 and 6 recommended the resumption of construction of Shin-Kori Units 5 and 6, and the government accepted this. By the decision of the committee, it overturned the suspension of construction of Shin-Kori Units 5 and 6, which was the representative post-nuclear power plant policy at the beginning of the current government.