[Focus] Elected ward chief writes confession

Koh Jae-Deuk, 54, an elected chief of Songdong-ku district office, has released a written confession on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the ward's autonomy.

His written confession starts by saying, "This is wrong," revealing the problems of the administration run by an elected official.

A good example of such bad administration is exhibition events aimed at boosting the ward chief's popularity. In 1994, shortly before the birth of the system run by an elected chief of a ward, a total of 410 citations were awarded. But the number has more than tripled to 1,300 citations this year. Also, the number of purchases for placards for promotional events increased 85.1 percent to 174 from 1994's 94. In terms of cost, it soared 233 percent. Koh pointed out that the production costs are growing even faster with diversity in the color of placard.

Another problem is the ways to cope with illegal acts. The head of a ward is supposed to run for reelection, so residents' protests are considered as less support for him of her. The number of tickets for illegal parking, one of the main factors that cause complaints from district residents, sharply declined 32.5 percent during the six years. During the same period, the number of cars registered increased by 16,850 cars.

Also, during the same period, the construction of unlicensed buildings and illegal street stalls increased 15.6 percent and 81.7 percent respectively. The trend is due largely to the abruptly deteriorating economic situation. However, he believed that it was a result of the district office's attitude to overlook such illegal acts.

He recognized that the number of administrative measures decreased 50.9 percent during the past six years, while the number of outlets subject to environmental hygiene supervision has increased substantially, noting that it has something to do with such an attitude.

Koh said that he is agonized over how this will be mirrored to the general public at a time when there is a controversy whether the head of an autonomous body should be elected or named by the government.

Chung Youn-Wook jyw11@donga.com