[Editorial] NIS Should Mend Its Ways for Budget

The intelligence committee of the National Assembly reduced the fiscal year 2003 budget for the National Intelligence Service (NIS) by 10 billion won. This is the second time that the intelligence committee cuts down on the budget for the NIS. Last year, it slashed the budget by 8 billion won. However, the public does not have any interest in how much the budget for the NIS was slashed. Rather, it wants to know whether a staggering sum of the NIS yearly budget, which reaches as much as 1 trillion won, has been used properly and how the National Assembly is verifying the use of the budget.

The answer is “No.” The intelligence committee was supposed to review the use of the budget by the NIS secretly. However, under the current system, in which the NIS just presents how much money it needs, without submitting a report on the budget calculation or required documents, the intelligence committee`s through verification is impossible. In particular, activity cost for national security is a problem. The activity cost, which amounts to hundreds of billion won, is included in the reserve fund, which is drawn up by the Ministry of Planning and Budget (MOPB). Therefore, the committee cannot keep track of where the NIS used how much. The activity cost for 2000 reached 404.7 billion won. In 2001, even the figure was not disclosed.

Whenever, the budget issue is raised, the NIS uses “national secret” as an excuse. Of course, the national intelligence agency cannot reveal all the details about the budget. However, national secret is one thing and the verification of a budget is another. First, the NIS` activity cost should be included in its own budget, not in the reserve fund of MOPB when the budget is taken into deliberation. And the current NIS law, which allows the NIS to just suggest the total amount of the budget, should be revised. If not so, public distrust of the NIS will probably increase.

Aside from the budget issue, the NIS` reputation is not good because it was allegedly involved in the diversion of the budget to election campaigns and some “gate” scandals. Former and incumbent chiefs of the NIS were proved to have given some pocket money to the sons of the President. Those incidents stem from the fact that the appropriation of a budget is not made in a transparent way. Now is the time for a national intelligence agency to mend its ways. To do so, first the NIS` practices regarding its budget should be changed.