Aggressive Inspection On Government Officials

The government has strengthened the inspections on the high officials of the local and central governments, including the minister or vice-minister level officials.

The Civil Affairs office of Cheong Wa Dae is known as examining the conducts of the 90 government officials such as human resource management, disciplines of conducts, and the press relationship.

Especially, this investigation includes the matters of privacy such as the property increase, sexual relationships, and drinking habits.

A high official of Cheong Wa Dae said that ``to use for the evaluation of the high officials, the capability and enthusiasm on their job are inspected. However, this is regular inspection, which has been done since the previous administrations.``

The related official also remarked that ``as President Kim Dae-Jung emphasized the spotless integrity of the government officials at the signature ceremony of the anti-corruption law, the government has been strengthening the efforts for the anti -corruption. The current investigation on the ministers and the vice-ministers may be understood in the same line of thought.

The joint audit and inspection team of the government has set for the overall investigation on the high officials of the 31 central governmental organizations and the 16 local governments.

At this inspection, the government will examine the actual situations of the 420 administrative reformation tasks including the deregulation and the reduction of the unnecessary contacts with the public in addition to the investigation on the habitual corrupted activities such as bribes.

The Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea will also check the pork-barreling administration of the local government leaders before the local election next year.

Yun Seung-Mo ysmo@donga.com