Gyeonggi Public Officials Union "Stop the Autonomy Affairs National Audit"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Gyeonggi Province Integrated Public Officials Labor Union has urged that the two upcoming National Assembly audits of Gyeonggi Province by the Administrative Safety Committee (October 18) and the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee (October 20) be consolidated into one audit considering the severe circumstances such as COVID-19, and that audits on autonomous administrative affairs excluding state-delegated tasks be suspended.

Furthermore, with Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, emerging as a leading ruling party candidate for the 2022 presidential election, the union warned that there is a high possibility that this audit could be distorted into a 'political audit' centered on the opposition, and requested that the audit remain faithful to its original purpose.

On the 28th, the Gyeonggi Integrated Public Officials Labor Union held a joint press conference with the National Public Officials Labor Union in front of the main gate of Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office in Suwon, calling for ▲ suspension of National Assembly audits on local autonomous administrative affairs ▲ adjustment of the Gyeonggi Province audit schedule from two standing committees to one to allow public officials to focus on disaster recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic ▲ cessation of politicizing presidential election issues and adherence to the original policy audit purpose of the National Assembly audit.

The public officials union first criticized, "Since the fourth wave of the pandemic, COVID-19 confirmed cases have surged, with 755 new cases per day in the province as of September 27, increasing the workload and fatigue of Gyeonggi public officials," adding, "Despite repeated requests to the government for sufficient manpower support and improved treatment, the government has not responded at all."

In particular, they noted, "From September to November is a 'data tsunami' season for local government officials, involving ongoing project implementation, National Assembly audits, budget reviews, and local council administrative audits," and reported, "Compared to 2020, the National Assembly's data requests for Gyeonggi Province have increased by more than 1.3 times as of 2021."

The union further expressed concern, "With the 2022 presidential election approaching, Gyeonggi Province is at the center of election issues, making it highly likely to become a focal point in the audit, and an enormous amount of related data requests will pour in until just before the audit," adding, "As a result, public officials exhausted from COVID-19 quarantine and civil administrative duties are left unable to do anything due to the additional preparation of audit materials."

The union also pointed out that less than 10% of the requested data is actually used during audit questioning despite the enormous volume of data requests.

They criticized, "The current National Assembly Audit Act limits the scope of audits on local governments to 'state-delegated tasks and state subsidy support projects,' but unlike the Audit Act, the National Assembly audit targets all tasks performed by local governments," and stated, "Of the 3,000 total data requests for the 2020 National Assembly audit, over 2,100 were related to autonomous administrative affairs, accounting for more than 70% of all audit data requests."

They added, "In terms of data utilization, during last year's Gyeonggi Province audit period, out of 3,000 data requests, only 171 questions were raised by the Administrative Safety Committee and the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee on the audit day, about 6%," pointing out, "More than 94% of the effort by local government public officials to produce data was wasted as sunk costs."

The union also noted, "Since each lawmaker independently requests data, multiple lawmakers request overlapping data with slightly different formats on issues reported in the media," and added, "Even though local governments are audit subjects, excessive unnecessary administrative workload is being caused, which is problematic."