Half-baked ‘Kim Young-ran Act’ without provision to prevent conflict of interest

Kim Young-ran, 59, former chairwoman of Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) and chair-professor in Sogang University Law School, has raised issues of the so-called "Kim Young-ran Act," the Anti-Corruption and Conflicts of Interest Act that passed the National Assembly on last Tuesday. The criticism from Kim, the person who initially proposed the bill, is likely to fuel the controversy over the poorly crafted legislation.

“It is regretful that the enacted bill omitted the conflict of interest provision, which was included in the original draft (the draft for pre-announcement of legislation), since the provision is the core of anti-corruption policies to prevent public officials’ pursuit of personal interest, such as a minister’s hiring of his or her own children to the ministry or the head of a public organization gives an construction order to his or her relative’s company,” said Kim at a press conference held in Sogang University on 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

The enacted bill defines lawmakers and other elected public officials’ delivery of the third party’s civil complaints as an exception for illegal solicitation subjected to punishment. Regarding this, Kim criticized this, saying that the provision was not in the original draft and it could lead to turning elected public officials into brokers.

Kim added, “The private areas covered by the act seem to be included in haste, without proper consensus and preparation by the society on the coverage, speed and methods. Since freedom of the press is an essential value that requires for special protection, additional countermeasures (in this regard) are needed.” Regarding the fact that private school personnel and journalists are subjected to the anti-corruption act, Kim said, “As (such occupations) have strong nature to serve for public interest, I don’t think the act is excessive or violates the principle of proportion. I will wait for the Constitutional Court’s ruling to the constitutional petition raised by the Korean Bar Association.”

“Given past cases in which children or siblings of the former presidents were involved in crime (by receiving illegal gifts), it is regrettable to see the act has reduced the scope of targets from `family members of public officials’ to ‘spouses of public officials,” Kim also said.

jks@donga.com