Civic groups give higher marks to administrative inspection

There are indications of diligent efforts by the representatives and a general air of honesty.

The early assessment by civic groups of the first administrative inspection of the 16th National Assembly seems positive on the whole. Although more time is needed for continued progress in the areas of sincerity and professionalism, the National Assembly representatives have gotten higher marks than last year, according to the consensus of the monitors.

In particular, reports on policies by various members of the standing committees have grown in number, marking a departure from the past, the Citizens' Regiment of Administrative Inspection revealed.

The joint executive officer of the Citizen's Regiment, Yang Sae-Jin, stated that while there needs to be a closer inspection of the reports in terms of quality, the time and effort allotted to the reports by the committee members is worthy of praise.

However, certain areas of dissatisfaction remain. Above all, some representatives continue to adopt a negative attitude toward the inspection and assessment of the civic groups.

A case in point is the call for closed-door hearings for the administrative inspection and the call for a restraint of individual assessment of the members of the Executive Policy Council and the Finance and Economy Committee. Civic groups lashed back and insisted such actions reflected the "old-school" mentality that ignores the political rights of the people to inspect members of the National Assembly.

Another area of discontent was the non-specific, canned answers adopted by most of the members of the standing committees, which lacked any thorough or concrete insight into pending issues. In addition, old political habits such as the non-specific repetition of inquiries, half-hearted inspections, the insincere attitude of the inspection boards and the evasive answers of the respondents continued to plague the National Assembly.