Gov’t Reorganization Plan Taking Shape

The new administration’s plan to reorganize the government’s structure is gradually taking form, with the number of state agencies to drop from 18 to 12 or 15 and the removal of the deputy prime minister system.

Presidential transition committee spokesman Lee Dong-gwan said Sunday that his team reported the draft of its executive branch reform plan to President-elect Lee Myung-bak Saturday.

“Under the plan, the number of government officials will not be cut in the interest of stability,” the spokesman said. “Instead, the government’s structure will be reorganized based on big agencies and the functions of planning and coordination will be reinforced. We will come up with a final plan by January 15.”

The plan seeks to restructure agencies based on their functions and trim the government. The committee said the elimination of the deputy prime minister system is aimed to remove the redundancy of a middle manager.

○ Finance Ministry to Boost Planning and Coordination

The Finance and Economy Ministry will stop making financial policy and start coordinating the functions of planning and budget strategy, such as mapping out financial strategies. The ministry will be tentatively renamed the Planning and Finance Ministry.

One option is to transfer the budgeting function of the Planning and Budget Ministry to the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae.

A committee member said, “The presidential-elect is deeply interested in the American political and administrative system. The option of moving the budgeting function to Cheong Wa Dae benchmarks the Office of Management and Budget of the White House.

The Education and Human Resources Ministry, whose head is a deputy prime minister, is likely to absorb part of the Science and Technology Ministry, which also has a deputy prime minister as its chief. The merged entity will be the Education and Science Ministry.

Indicating partial integration with the Education Ministry, spokesman Lee said after hearing the Science and Technology Ministry’s report to the committee, “The philosophy of President-elect Lee is to support but not interfere.”

The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry will also likely absorb the Unification Ministry.

A few committee members, however, said that if the Foreign Ministry takes over policy toward North Korea, it would have to officially recognize the North as a state. Given this problem, they said only a few functions of the Unification Ministry that grew out of proportion during the incumbent administration should be moved to the Foreign Ministry, leaving the formulation of North Korea policy with the Unification Ministry.

The Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry will likely take on several functions of the Information and Communication Ministry. The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry is expected to absorb the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

The Commerce Ministry will probably cut support for big corporations to strengthen assistance for small and medium-sized companies and the development of overseas resources.

During the Commerce Ministry’s report to the new administration, the committee asked for cooperation with other agencies as assistants of business and to focus on energy development during the era of high oil prices.

Several functions of the Health and Welfare Ministry and the Gender Equality and Family Ministry will be integrated. Certain experts, however, say the current system should be maintained to carry out the President-elect Lee’s administrative philosophy of “heartfelt growth” or “job creation for women.”

The Culture and Tourism Ministry is likely to absorb the overseas public relations function of the Korean Overseas Information Service. The ministry will also take on certain functions of the Information and Communication Ministry to be reborn as the Culture, Tourism and Overseas Public Relations Ministry.

○ Revival of State Minister for Political Affairs

To reinforce the function of political affairs in Cheong Wa Dae, the committee will revive the position of state minister for political affairs, which was eliminated after the 1997 inauguration of then President Kim Dae-jung.

At first, the committee planned to revive the position of chief presidential secretary for state affairs as a coordinating channel between the ruling party and the presidential office, but decided on state minister for political affairs.

“The revival of state minister for political affairs is expected because many people argue that the committee should learn from the mistakes of the Roh administration, which saw trouble after the unsuccessful separation between the ruling party and the presidential office,” a committee member said.

“Moreover, cutting the number of state agencies to under 15 is against the Constitution, which say the number of state ministers should be more than 15, so we are examining the revival of the position."

ddr@donga.com