Ahn Dae-hee
The ruling Saenuri Party will push to create a special inspector position to fend off corruption by presidents’ families and close associates, a long-established fixture in Korean politics.
The measures were drawn up by the ruling party’s special committee on political reform, whose chairman Ahn Dae-hee has been stressing the need for a “no tolerance” approach to corruption of the president’s family members and others in high-ranking government positions.
Military dictators of the 1970s and ‘80s ruled with little regard over related laws, while later democratically elected presidents saw close relatives jailed for a variety of corruption charges.
Even in the “ethically perfect” Lee Myung-bak administration, a number of the president’s closest allies including his brother Lee Sang-deuk and former Korea Communications Commission chairman Choi See-joong have been implicated in various corruption cases.
According to the measures drawn up by the committee, the special inspector will serve a three-year term and will be prohibited from taking public office during the tenure of the president who appointed him or her.
The special inspector will also be protected from dismissal unless impeached, issued fines or more severe legal penalties or requested by the National Assembly.
The proposed office will be responsible for overseeing regulations concerning activities of members of the president’s family to a specified degree of relation, those holding high-ranking government posts with special affiliation to the president, and any other officials specified by the special inspector.
Officials considered those with special affiliation to the president to include the prime minister, members of the cabinet and others holding minister-level positions, officials of the presidential office with executive presidential secretary and higher positions.
The chiefs of the National Tax Service, Public Prosecutors’ Office, Fair Trade Commission, National Intelligence Service, National Police Agency, Board of Audit and Inspection and the Financial Services Commission will also come under the special inspector’s jurisdiction.
In addition to setting up the new office, other measures Saenuri Party has put forward include tougher punishments for the offenders and tighter regulations regarding the families of presidents.
Those involved in influence-peddling will be penalized whether or not there were financial gains, and close associates and family members of a president will be given limited opportunity for promotions and prohibited from holding public offices not selected through open competition for the duration of the president’s term.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
