[Opinion] Bloomberg

People need to know whether high-ranking officials stay clean or not. Doing just that, however, is as difficult as like tying a bell around the cat’s neck. Countries across the world have sought different ways to find out how clean their public officials are, from registration of assets to hearings. In the U.S., officials are sometimes asked to relegate their belongs to families once they win office so that they will not be able to abuse their power to amass wealth. We are now also seeing an increasing number of businessmen-turned officials. And it has become barometer of political development how transparent system a country has on that matter.

▷ The U.S. and Italy are the countries where businessmen holds many public offices. New York City Mayor Bloomberg and Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi are cases in point. When the founder of global media group Bloomberg became the mayor of the Big Apple, business weekly Fortune introduced him as “the second richest public official throughout democratic countries in the world.” The richest official is Berlusconi, who is known to have $11 billion. The common denominator between the two is that they were self-made businessmen who came to head a global media group. There is a telling difference, however. The Italian prime minister has been suspected of such wrongdoings as bribe taking, tax evasion and raising illegal funds, while the New York mayor has managed to stay clean.

▷ Bloomberg, who has $4.4 billion at his disposal, pledged during his campaign last year that he would not be paid for his service if he gets elected. And he reportedly poured 86 billion won into the mayor race. Was it because New Yorkers like rich men? He was able to have what he called “the coolest job in the world.” The job, however, did not come without a price. The ethics committee of the city told him to dispose all of his stocks except for bonds issued by the city. The ruling was aimed to prevent him from favoring certain businesses in which he holds a stake throughout the decision making process.

▷ We have seen quite a few businessmen seeking public offices as well, including Jung Joo-young, founder of Hyundai and former presidential candidate, Lee Myung-bak, current Seoul City Mayor, Jang Dae-hwan, former Prime Minister nominee, and Jung Mong-joon, lawmaker set to run for presidential race this year. For now, we are only able to see how much wealth they have amassed through registration documents and hearings. And some loopholes are allowed them to skip on assets held by their family members. It now appears, therefore, impossible to stop them from abusing their power to amass fortunes if they intend to do so. Then, it might be a good idea to prescribe the ruling by the New York Ethics Committee to those who think winning office is hitting a jackpot.

Park Young-kyun, Editorial Writer parkyk@donga.com