2024-05-08 06:43:07
Even if the Personnel Information Management Group continues
Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs, a member of Hong Kong, led the verification and observation
With the revival of the Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs, attention is focused on whether the Ministry of Justice’s Personnel Information Management Group, which was established by former Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon to verify the personnel of major public office candidates, will continue to exist. The President’s Office and the government have not yet announced whether it will exist or not, but since Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Kim Joo-hyun, a former prosecutor, was appointed on the 7th, there are speculations that the President’s Office will take the lead in personnel verification in the future.
When President Yoon Seok-yeol took office in May 2022, he abolished the Office of Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs, saying he would eliminate the remnants of background investigations, and the Ministry of Justice announced a plan to establish a new Personnel Information Management Group in June of the same year, immediately after former Minister Han took office. Previously, the Office of the Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs oversaw the personnel verification of public office candidates, but the system was changed to one in which the Personnel Information Management Group collects and forwards primary data, and then the Office of the Presidential Secretary for Public Service Discipline reviews and makes a decision.
The Personnel Information Management Group was staffed with personnel dispatched from the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Ministry of National Defense, the National Police Agency, and the National Intelligence Service, as well as three prosecutors, and the opposition party criticized it as “entrusting great power to former Minister Han.”
However, there was repeated criticism that the Ministry of Justice had inadequately verified public office candidates, with attorney Soon-sin Jeong stepping down due to controversy over her son’s school violence just one day after her appointment as head of the National Investigation Headquarters, and Kim Haeng, a candidate for Minister of Gender Equality and Family, failing to run due to suspicions of ‘stock parking.’ Each time, former Minister Han gave an explanation, saying, “We only hand over objective data to the President’s Office and do not make any judgments.” This meant that the Personnel Information Management Group only collects data from related organizations such as the police and does not judge the credibility or value of the data, but the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice did not subside.
In the future, there are predictions that the influence of the President’s Office on personnel verification of public office candidates will become stronger as the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs has been newly established and the Secretary to the President for Public Service Discipline, who was in charge of secondary personnel verification, is moving to the Office of Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs. There are predictions that even if the step-by-step personnel verification system from the Personnel Information Management Group to the Office of the Secretary for Public Service Discipline is maintained, the influence of the President’s Office may increase. An official from the ruling party said, “We will have to look more closely at the future direction of operation, but with the revival of the Office of the Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs, wouldn’t the judgment and intentions of the Office of the Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs play a greater role in the personnel verification of high-ranking public officials?”
It is known that the government has not yet decided on a specific policy for the Personnel Information Management Group. In a phone call with the Dong-A Ilbo, an official from the Ministry of Justice declined to comment, saying, “I haven’t heard anything yet.” Some predict that it will be difficult to abolish the Personnel Information Management Group immediately. An official from the legal community explained, “The Ministry of Justice has worked hard to establish the system, including revising the enforcement ordinance and enforcement rules and dispatching key prosecutors’ personnel,” and added, “It would be difficult to change this in an instant.”
Reporter Koo Min-ki [email protected]
Reporter Jeon Joo-young [email protected]
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2024-05-08 06:43:07