[Opinion] Serving Their Own Interests

The ruling and opposition party, which are often poles apart when it comes to key national issues, sometimes easily reach an agreement. They do this when their own interests are at stake – raising payrolls or increasing the number of aides. They must feel shame at least. When they do this, they do it in a sneaky and quick way. It happens again recently. The ruling and opposition party have agreed to increase the number of senior policy researchers from the present 32 to 70. Given that the researchers are treated as level 1 to 4 officers and paid average 60 million won a year, Additional 2.2 billion won of people`s money will be injected into the National Assembly according to the decision.

The political parties cite the need for enhanced policy review functions as the reason. The number of counsels working at the National Assembly is relatively small compared to those in advanced countries. U.S. Senate and House hire 40 and 20 personal aides respectively. In addition, there are some 1,400 counsels working at standing committees, 700 at the investigation office, 20 at the judiciary office and 470 at the accounting office, who assist lawmakers. In comparison, the National Assembly assigns 6 personal aides to each lawmaker and hires about 270 for standing committees, 40 for the judiciary office, 400 for the budget and planning and 30 librarians and legislative researchers.

Nonetheless, it is not convincing at all that lawmakers argue that their working environment is relatively poorer than that of U.S. counterparts based on these figures. In the U.S., aides and counsels play a due part in boosting productivity of the Congress, while aides here are usually mobilized for lawmakers` personal matters such as management of constituencies, which are hardly related to boosting functionality of the National Assembly. Policy researchers, in particular, put more focus on party affairs than legislation. They belong to the National Assembly but often work for certain political parties. Still, lawmakers complain about the lack of workforce.

The National Assembly is under fire for being incompetent again. The ruling and opposition party are so preoccupied with forming a new party and electing a new party leader that they fail to make full commitment to legislation. 752 bills are pending for review at the National Assembly. The plenary session held on June 11 started 50 minutes later as the number of attendants came short of one fifth, or 55, set for a session. Against this backdrop, they were rushing to agree to increase the number of policy researchers. This is why people are lamenting waste of people`s tax money. If lawmakers and the legislative branch do their bit, few will care about spending extra money. But parents must chide their children if they ask for more supplies while playing hooky.

Song Young-eon, Editorial Writer, youngeon@donga.com