Govt Wasted 10 Billion won for Establishing Integrated System of 4 Insurances

The government has wasted more than 10 billion won by having forcefully pushing for establishing the information connection system of the four national insurances from 2001.

The finding was revealed during the audit of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) from June to September last year, said Rep. Shim Jae-chul of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) Sunday.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and the Ministry of Labor (MOL) failed to conduct a thorough analysis on the project of establishing an information connection system of the four insurances and thus wasted 9.2 billion won in building the system and an annual 4.3 billion won in operating it, according to the results of the audit.

The four insurances include the National Pension, Health Insurance, Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance, and Employment Insurance.

The BAI reported such results to related ministries and called for correction. ˝So far, the MOHW has been telling that the information connection system of the four insurances was successful. But, in fact, the project was a waste of money,˝ said Rep. Shim. ˝This is one of the typical cases of administrative failures,˝ he added.

However, the BAI said that the project was inappropriate. ˝The four insurances have little in common except for the fact that they are public institutions. Since they are all different in imposing and collecting insurance premiums, the ministries should have integrated the different systems after standardizing the work of each insurance and basic data,˝ it pointed out.

˝As the ministries forcefully pushed for the project, 9.2 billion won in establishing the system and 4.3 billion won in operating it were wasted,˝ it added. ˝If the systems of each insurance were directly connected, the money wouldn`t have been needed.˝

˝Officials of related ministries were aware that the project shouldn`t have been carried our like that, but they probably had no other choices but to follow the Kim Dae-jung administration`s will to establish an e-government,˝ the BAI said.

The project to integrate systems of the four insurances was selected by the special committee of e-government in March 2001. The committee cut a deal with LG-CNS and POS Data for 9.2 billion won.

Dong-Won Kim daviskim@donga.com