A former close aide to former President Lee Myung-bak said Monday the governing party should accept the opposition’s calls to probe graft allegations against the Lee administration.

Governing Saenuri Party Rep. Chung Doo-un is the first among those close to Lee to support the New Politics Alliance for Democracy’s demands for a parliamentary investigation. Chung is known to have played a key role during Lee’s election campaign, but fell out with him during Lee’s presidency.

Main opposition NPAD lawmakers have accused the Lee administration of engaging in extravagant public policies that misused trillions of won of public money.

NPAD officials have especially outlined Lee’s so-called four rivers restoration project and his “resource diplomacy” initiative. Opposition officials say that Lee’s pet projects have cost the taxpayer up to 100 trillion won ($90 billion).

Saenuri Party lawmakers who served in the Lee administration have been reluctant to accept the demands, as incumbent officials could be linked to the investigations, including Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan and Saenuri Rep. Lee Jae-oh.

“If President Lee is confident there was no foul play within his administration, I see no reason the Saenuri Party should refuse any investigations,” Rep. Chung said.

President Lee’s four rivers restoration project aimed to revitalize natural habitats around four major rivers. Lee’s “resource diplomacy” policy directed trillions of won toward energy development projects abroad in order to reduce South Korea’s dependence on foreign energy imports.

But multiple cases of alleged influence-peddling and corruption cases linked to the two projects have surfaced.

Last Friday, the former president is reported to have met with incumbent governing party lawmakers close to him. At the gathering, the unnamed lawmakers are said to have told the president they would firmly resist any legislative motion that would kick-start parliamentary probes into the Lee administration.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)