[2022 National Audit] Digital New Deal Policy of Moon Administration: "Both Process and Outcome Are a Complete Mess"

At the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee's audit of the Ministry of Science and ICT held on the 4th, issues related to the previous Moon Jae-in administration's Digital New Deal policy were raised. The photo shows Minister Lee Jong-ho of the Ministry of Science and ICT responding to questions from Kim Young-sik, a member of the People Power Party. Photo by Naver TV capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] At the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee's audit of the Ministry of Science and ICT held on the 4th, the ruling party focused on raising issues regarding the Moon Jae-in administration's Digital New Deal policy.

Kim Young-sik, a member of the People Power Party, pointed out, "The Moon administration called it an 'innovation project to overcome unemployment,' but the results are at a disastrous level," adding, "It turned out that 80% were short-term part-time students." He continued, "The number of downloads and visitors cannot be presented as performance," and said, "Performance is measured by how much output was produced compared to input, and at that time, only 25 cases worth 3.6 billion won were submitted as performance." More than 1 trillion won was invested in the budget alone.

Kim said, "This is a part that has been continuously pointed out as deficient for the past two years, and when investing more than 1 trillion won in the budget, a thorough demand survey must be conducted," urging, "The new government is also promoting the Digital Platform Government project, so (the Ministry of Science and ICT) should proceed in line with the direction."

Park Sung-joong, the People Power Party's secretary of the Science and ICT Committee, also criticized, "Only the National Information Society Agency (NIA) received a budget of 1.7 trillion won, but upon analysis, it was a mess," adding, "Management is sloppy, there is no evidence, and the result reports are not properly made." Park pointed out, "There were 3,953 consultations, but many of the nearly 4,000 consultations were unnecessary," and said, "There are reports as short as three lines and sloppy reports that can be made in one minute, yet there were cases where high consultation fees ranging from 1 million to 5 million won were paid."

"In my five years as a member of the Science and ICT Committee, this is the first time I have seen such reckless spending of taxes," he said, adding, "I think audits of the Ministry of Science and ICT are needed not only for NIA but also for the overall New Deal-related projects." In response, Lee Jong-ho, Minister of Science and ICT, replied, "We will review this matter and thoroughly manage and supervise it."

Earlier, in November 2020, the previous government announced that it would invest 43 trillion won in the data market by 2025 as part of the Digital New Deal policy. The key implementing agency is the National Information Society Agency (NIA).