Office of Prime Minister collects intelligence about political corruption

It has been reported that the South Korean government plans to run a two-track system to supervise officials of second level or above. Once the Office of the Prime Minister collects related intelligence about corruption and irregularities, inspections of details are carried out by a team that is newly created under the Office of the President to take charge of supervising and inspecting cases involving government officials. The adoption of this dual system implies that the Office of the President, into the second year of the administration’s inauguration, is dedicated to verifying such cases for supervision and monitoring based on intelligence provided by the Office of the Prime Minister as part of its efforts to tighten discipline internally across the public sector. It is interpreted as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol intends to fix issues identified by inspections of government officials since the Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary was abolished, as he pledged during the presidential election campaigns, and upgrade some functions in the system to make sure that government officials pull their socks up.

According to some sources related to the ruling party on Sunday, a team to supervise and inspect government officials, which will be newly added under the Office of the Secretary to the President for Civil Service Discipline, is expected to focus on investigating irregularities among government officials. An inspection team in the Office for Civil Service Discipline and Investigation, created under the Office for Government Policy Coordination last December, will start collecting related intelligence. This way, the administration aims to improve the supervision system by separating intelligence collection and inspection for verification. The upcoming inspection team is expected to consist of up to 10 members that will be sent by the prosecution, police authorities, and the National Tax Service.

The team in question will likely focus on high-level officials and heads of public agencies appointed by the president. As the Joint Office for Government Corruption Prevention is mainly in charge of tackling structural corruption, there has been a gap in supervising high-ranking officials since the Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary was closed down. “We are aware that there has been a lack of personnel in supervising high-level officials since the administration took office,” said a source who works at the core of the ruling party. “It intends to upgrade functions and staff given a new environment following the closure of the Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary.”


Kwan-Seok Jang jks@donga.com