2023-07-03 12:09:00
Board of Audit and Inspection “Comprehensive audit of disasters, not just disasters”… Q4 start, may be delayed
Controversial self-inflicted avoidance of results before the general election in April next year… Possibility of scale and phase reduction
It was confirmed on the 3rd that the Board of Audit and Inspection had made plans to begin an audit of the Itaewon disaster at the end of the year. Suspicion is being raised that the audit was intentionally delayed in order to avoid the audit results coming out before the general elections in April next year. The Board of Audit and Inspection has yet to show its will to focus its audit on the Itaewon disaster, saying that it will look at the overall response system related to various disasters. While the Board of Audit and Inspection is conducting an unprecedentedly rapid and comprehensive audit of the previous government, it is consistently passive regarding issues that the current government is responsible for, causing controversy over ‘political audit’.
On the 30th of last month, the Board of Audit and Inspection held a meeting of the Audit Committee, the highest decision-making body, and decided on an audit plan for the second half of this year. As a result of the coverage of the Kyunghyang Shinmun, the audit plan for the second half of the year included the same ‘disaster and safety management system inspection’ included in the annual audit plan decided by the audit committee earlier this year. The Board of Audit and Inspection decides on the audit plan for the second half of the year by reflecting the revised matters in the annual audit plan.
The ‘disaster and safety management system inspection’ specified as a ‘major audit area’ includes matters related to the Itaewon disaster that occurred on October 29 last year. Previously, the Board of Audit and Inspection had included the Itaewon disaster audit in the annual audit plan under the same name at the Audit Committee in January, but controversy arose over the false briefing by saying to the press, “If there is a specific audit plan (the Itaewon disaster), that is not the case.” At the time, some members of the audit committee raised an objection to Choi Jae-hae, head of the Board of Audit and Inspection, saying, “Why did you lie in the official briefing?” The Board of Audit and Inspection issued a press release on the same day and said, “We are not planning to audit the Itaewon disaster alone, but are preparing a comprehensive system audit plan related to the disaster.” assertion was repeated.
In particular, it was confirmed that the Board of Audit and Inspection set the ‘disaster and safety management system inspection’ as a plan for the fourth quarter of the second half. No matter how early it is, the audit will begin in October, the one year anniversary of the Itaewon disaster, or December at the latest. Since the establishment of the annual audit plan in January of this year, the audit committee members have requested that an audit of the Itaewon disaster be conducted early, but the audit date has been postponed to the end of this year. As the Board of Audit and Inspection is complaining of a lack of manpower while conducting an extensive audit of the Moon Jae-in government, concerns are raised that even this may be delayed.
Judging from the precedent, it is highly likely that the results of the Itaewon disaster audit will come out only following the general election on April 10 next year. In the audits of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and KBS, where the controversy over the ‘contract audit’ was raised, all results came out regarding ten months following the start. Some raise suspicions that the Board of Audit and Inspection is trying to reduce the size and status of the Itaewon disaster audit as part of an audit of various disaster-related response systems, delaying the timing of the audit as far as possible in order to avoid the release of the results of the Itaewon disaster audit before the general election. It is said that the Board of Audit and Inspection, an independent constitutional body, is carrying out its duties according to the taste of the government. Previously, Director Choi caused controversy by appearing before the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee in July of last year and saying, “The Board of Audit and Inspection is an institution that supports the president in running state affairs.”
The Board of Audit and Inspection has been passive throughout its audit of the Itaewon disaster. Director Choi attended a plenary meeting of the National Assembly Judiciary and Judiciary Committee in November of last year and said that the Itaewon disaster “is subject to audit” but that “the National Police Agency is conducting its own investigation and inspection.” He said that he might not start the audit right away because of the police investigation.
In the case of the Sewol ferry disaster, thanks in 13 days… It seems difficult to avoid criticism of ‘intentional delay’
The investigation into the Itaewon disaster by the Special Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency has already ended in January. The Board of Audit and Inspection carried out an audit of the shooting of a public official in the West Sea last year simultaneously with the prosecution’s investigation, and the National Election Commission’s own audit of the National Election Commission (NEC), which is recently suspected of preferential hiring of children, the police investigation, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission investigation, and the National Assembly’s parliamentary investigation. Even in light of the fact that the audit was enforced in the middle of the process, Choi’s remarks are not persuasive.
This attitude of the Board of Audit and Inspection is different from that of past major accidents. In 2014, during the Park Geun-hye administration, the Board of Audit and Inspection initiated an audit of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries with 50 people on April 29, 13 days following the Sewol ferry disaster. On the 10th of the month, the final results of the audit of ‘Sewol Ferry Sinking Accident Response and Coastal Passenger Ship Safety Management and Supervision’ were presented. Although it was criticized as an audit of the Blue House, it was meaningful, such as actually demanding the dismissal of the then head of the Korea Coast Guard Kim Seok-gyun.
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