Prime Minister Jeong Chairs the 112th Government Policy Issue Review Coordination Meeting
20,000 Cases of Insufficient Legal Basis, Deviations, and Unreflected Ordinances and Rules Identified; 13,000 Cases Revised
Correction of Excessive Deposits, Fines, Business Restrictions, and Unreasonable Administrative Procedures
13,000 of 16,000 Ordinances Revised; 4,000 Rules to Be Addressed Starting September
[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun announced on the 20th that he will reorganize cases where local governments' ordinances and regulations violate higher laws and impose excessive deposits.
On the same day, Prime Minister Jeong chaired the 112th National Affairs Inspection and Coordination Meeting at the Government Sejong Complex and stated that they discussed and finalized the 'Plan to Reorganize Unreasonable Local Autonomy Regulations.'
So far, regulatory innovation has mainly focused on improving laws and regulations of central government ministries and improving the behavior of public officials enforcing them (proactive administration).
Even if the central government revises laws, there have been limitations where local governments do not reflect these laws in their local regulations or create regulations without legal grounds or delegation.
Prime Minister Jeong explained that for this reason, they began investigating and reorganizing the overall ordinances and regulations of local governments.
The Office for Government Policy Coordination (Economic, Social and Humanities Research Council), the Ministry of Government Legislation (Legislation Research Institute), and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety focused on identifying problems. From 2017 to this year, they investigated 79,000 ordinances and 24,000 regulations from 243 local governments (17 metropolitan and 226 basic).
After reviewing the results by ministry, they established a collaborative system to manage the reorganization status of local governments. Through this, they reorganized not only unreasonable regulations such as restrictions on rights and imposition of obligations but also non-regulatory issues causing resident inconvenience and burdens, such as administrative procedures, taxes, and fines.
The unreasonable local autonomy regulations identified this time amounted to about 20,000, including 16,614 ordinances and 3,896 regulations.
Since 243 local governments enact ordinances or regulations based on one legal provision, interpreting overlapping cases as one, the estimated number of unreasonable local autonomy regulations is about 2,100.
By type, 57% were violations of the scope of legal delegation, 23% were failure to reflect amended laws, and 20% were enforcement of regulations without legal grounds.
By content, unreasonable administrative procedures accounted for the largest share at 58%, followed by excessive restrictions on business and residents' lives (23%) and imposition of excessive financial burdens (9%).
Source=Office for Government Policy Coordination, Ministry of Government Legislation, Ministry of the Interior and Safety
Since January last year, reorganization has been underway, and 83% has been completed. Among the 16,614 identified ordinances, over 13,000 have been reorganized. However, regulations will begin reorganization starting next month.
The Ministry of Government Legislation plans to provide continuous support for the reorganization of local autonomy regulations related to reorganization tasks in dispatched local governments (including cities, counties, and districts within the jurisdiction) by utilizing the system of legislative cooperation officers dispatched to 12 cities and provinces. They will expand legal education and consulting for local government officials.
Government ministries will strengthen monitoring to ensure that delegated matters in local autonomy regulations are newly established or amended legally and timely.
Prime Minister Jeong said, "We plan to strengthen inspections and evaluations of the reorganization status by local governments to ensure that the identified ordinances and regulations are promptly reorganized," adding, "We will disclose detailed information on unreasonable local autonomy regulations by local government to residents to induce prompt reorganization by local governments, and we will also strengthen preemptive support and management to prevent the enactment of unreasonable local autonomy regulations."
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