The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) has released its findings following a comprehensive audit of the country's regional autonomous governments. It was a wide-ranging review of all 250 of them, and examined areas such as finances, projects, organizational issues, and personnel management. It is a report card on the first ten years of regional autonomy, and the final grade is very disappointing and causes concern.
The first thing you notice is indiscriminate spending on projects designed mostly to impress voters. According to the BAI, since 2000 some W420.9 billion has been wasted on projects that were begun without having first seen feasibility studies, projects that were either legally impossible from the start or that were begun without the necessary permits from the proper agencies. There has been a rapid 76 percent increase in local sports and cultural festivals since local leaders began to be directly elected by their constituents instead of being appointed by the national government. Regional governments are not the only ones responsible, however, since the body responsible for oversight, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, approved of the issuing of hundreds of billions of bonds for such projects. The BAI's overall assessment is harsh. It says that regional autonomy "presents a serious challenge for being a potential obstacle to the country's development," and it made the unusual move of noting "seven major obstacles to regional government development" while calling for decisive change.
Regional governments have steadily come to enjoy greater authority and independence over the past ten years. The scale of their finances has generally doubled. In the meantime, however, there have not been adequate checks and provisions for oversight in place, especially the kind that would be appropriate for the authority they now enjoy. Regional legislatures are frequently found to be in collusion with powerful local interests, and their in-house audit and inspection apparatuses exist in name only. The fact that the heads of regional governments claim they are being "targeted" with audits even when illegalities have been discovered proves how overly politicized regional government has become.
It is local populations that ultimately suffer the consequences of inefficient local governments. Change needs to begin with having their audit agencies be headed up by outside experts or giving the national government the authority to appoint deputy heads of each regional one. Of course that would have to be followed up with cool-headed judgment from local voters.
The Hankyoreh, 10 February 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
