BAI Discontinued Audit on Subsidy for Parties by Organizational Boycott

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) recently made the first audit on the ruling and opposition parties` management of government subsidies. But it was reported on 18th that the field audit was discontinued because the parties denied the audit and the related enterprises were uncooperative.

An official of BAI said, "In the regular audit of The Central Election Management Committee (CEMC) till 18th, BAI performed a field investigation on the enterprises which issued receipts to the parties for more than 5 million won. It was in order to inspect the management of the subsidy, but BAI couldn`t help but stop the investigations because every enterprise denied cooperation. "

And the person added, "Some parties told the related enterprises `not to help with the investigation` and helped the owners or representatives slip away in advance. That is nothing but an obvious systematic interruption of the parties and the related enterprises on the audit. "

This audit was complying the request of Rep. Chough Soon-Hyung of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee saying, "It is required to inspect the management of subsidy which is provided from the national tax." And for the first time BAI intended to audit the subsidy for the parties as well as to examine the supervisory function of CEMC such as field investigations.

Meanwhile, over The Grand National Party (GNP)`s revised BAI bill which exclude CEMC from the object of BAI inspection, friction between these two organizations is expected, because CEMC and BAI announced their official standpoint: the one `for` the bill, the other `against`.

An official of CEMC said, " CEMC consists of 3 persons from the legislature, the judiciary, and the administration, and it is an independent organization by constitution. Therefore, the inspection of BAI on CEMC interferes in the judgment of CEMC, jeopardizing the political neutrality of CEMC. "

But BAI refuted, "According to the principle of the independence of legislative, administrative and judicial authority, BAI excludes the legislative and judicial organizations from the inspection. But CEMC is an administrative organization by its organizational structure, and cannot be excluded from the inspection. And BAI is an independent constitutional organization, which secures the political neutrality of CEMC."

Sung-Won Park swpark@donga.com