Foundation for Ensuring
Transparency, Autonomy &
Responsibility of Public Entities

A bill on the operation of non-departmental public entities pending at the parliament

The government has submitted to parliament a bill on the operation of non-departmental public entities, designed to ensure transparency, autonomy, responsibility and innovation of public organizations. Bae Kuk-hwan, director-general of Non-departmental Public Entities'Innovation Bureau, has called for an early parliamentarian passage of the measure, submitted on June 8, to establish a foundation for reinventing the public sector.
"So far, Korea's public entities have contributed to buttressing up its bid to expand national core infrastructure and raise industrial competitive edge during the national development period. As a matter of fact, their building up material infrastructure like road, railway, airport and seaport as well as such social infrastructure as national pension and health insurance, industrial safety and transportation safety has improved convenience and welfare of the general public,"he noted.
However, despite this pivotal role, the public awareness toward public entities is negative. The Board of Audit and Inspection's repeated revelation of inefficient and mismanagement cases has become the subject of public criticism, he said.
The Ministry of Planning and Budget drafted a bill on the operation of non-departmental public entities that would guarantee autonomy while taking responsibility from performance as part of ways to innovate the governance structure of public entities. There are now such laws as the Act on the basics of the management of government-invested institutions, the act on the basics of the management of organizations under the umbrella of government ministries. The laws are insufficient to cover all public entities, Director-General Bae said. Take a look into a major features of the pending bill.
First, the measure clarifies the definition of public entities through systematic classification.
Secondly, the bill would overhaul an inspection and evaluation system into public entities.
Thirdly, it would strengthen internal checks and balance into public entities and quasi-government agencies.
Fourthly, the bill would establish a fair system for appointing executives, calling for the establishment of recommendations committees for selecting all executives instead of the current system of forming a recommendation committee for the president of each entity. nw

Bae Kuk-kwan, director-general of Non-departmental Public Entities'Innovation Bureau at MPB