[단독] 文 Close associates were given a convenient salary, Choi Jae-hyung’s auditor was caught.

Auditor Choi Jae-hyung answers questions from lawmakers at the general meeting of the Legislative Judicial Council held in the National Assembly on July 29. [뉴시스]

# 1 The Presidential Advisory Committee for Balanced National Development (Equalization Committee) paid 4 million won per month to then-President Song Jae-ho from January last year to January this year. The total payment is 52 million won. The headquarters of the Consultative Presidency is non-executive. The Gyunbal Committee explained to the Audit Office that since Chairman Song worked full-time, the fees for expert advice were paid as a monthly salary. However, the law stipulates that the Compensation Committee must not pay expert advisory fees to non-executive chairs as a fixed salary. The Kyunbal Committee has never paid expert advisory fees to Professor Kim Sa-yeol of Kyungpook National University, who took over as Kyunbal’s new president in March.

# 2 The President’s Direct Work Committee (President Moon Jae-in) also paid 5,513 million won per month to current Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong-seop, who was then Vice President from June 2017 to February 2018. Since April 2018 through February this year, former legislator Mok-hee Lee, who served as vice president, also awarded a total of 14.99 million won each month for 6.41 million won. Under the law, the Vice President can only receive National Affairs Assistant rewards for collecting data or conducting field research. It is impossible to receive a reward like a regular salary. The Korea Employment Committee does not pay the national affairs assistant salary to Ajou University professor Kim Yong-gi, who took over as vice president in February.

# 3 The Economic, Social and Labor Committee (Gyeonggi-no-wi) has also been paying the commissioner’s compensation as salary since 2010, unlike the law. In 2017, he paid 6.07 million won per month, 6.38 million won in 2018-2019, and 6.49 million won this year. President Kyong-no-wi has been in charge of former Democratic Labor Party Executive Director Moon Seong-hyun since August 2017.

On the 17th, the auditor announced the results of the Blue House audit. Those who were revealed to have received his salary were President Moon Jae-in’s closest friends. Former President Song Jae-ho served as chairman of the National Growth Committee, an advisory body for the Moon Jae-in candidate camp during the 2017 presidential elections. He resigned from President Gyunbal and ran for the Jeju Gap district as candidate of the Democratic Party in the 21 general elections and was elected. Mayor Lee served as head of emergency economic countermeasures for Camp Moon Jae-in in the 2017 presidential election, and former legislator Lee served as head of Camp Moon Jae-in planning headquarters in the 2012 presidential election.

Thus, in the political world, “the fact that the audit results were also unusual and the fact that the announcement was made is unusual.” Some point out that it reflects the intention of auditor Choi Jae-hyung, who has emphasized monitoring the institutions of power to the point that he became tense with the Blue House. The Audit and Inspection Board conducted accounting audits for the Blue House from 2003 to 2018. It means they saw the money coming and going. One person from the Blue House said, “Even if a problem was found, it used to go to ‘Let’s do it right in the future.’

“The Office of the President interrupted the order of the national contract by making the Children’s Day video”

In fact, as of 2016, the results of the Presidency’s 2016 and 2017 audits were 0.2 in each country’s audit statistics. However, after 15 years of the appointment of Director Choi, the institutional management audit was reactivated. The audit results for the presidential office increased to 8 and 7 in 2018 and 2019, respectively. This time, for the first time in the current government, the four advisory committees of the president’s office (Balance Committee, Sergeant Working Committee, Working Committee, and Policy Planning Committee) were also audited. There is an evaluation that the force is quite strong.

The Board of Audit and Inspection also found that the Labor Committee discriminated against applicants based on their age when selecting a permanent contract. In May 2017, the Korean Employment Commission did not specify the age requirement in the recruitment announcement when hiring a driver with a permanent contract in May 2017, but four applicants over the age of 50 were eliminated through document selection. The Employment Committee insisted to the Audit and Inspection Board that “there was no fact that only specific age groups were selected.” However, during the audit process, an internal approval document was found which established ‘age (35-50 years)’ as the selection criteria for the document review. In April 2018, the Korea Employment Commission also hired a secretary and removed three people over the age of 35 from the selection of documents for preferential treatment for youth.

Regarding balance, the Audit and Inspection Board created a Special National Communication Committee saying that it would listen to the voices of the local community, but noted that it has only held two meetings since January 2018, and warned that “not to abolish or operate in a manner formal”. It gave.

The Board of Audit and Inspection also announced the results of the audit that the presidential office paid 50 million won to a utility company without going through the procedures stipulated in the law while making a commemorative video for Children’s Day in May. In addition, it also notified the warning, saying: “The order of the contract was interrupted by violating article 11 of the National Contract Law, such as signing a subsequent contract.”

Recently, Auditor General Choi Jae-hyung is having a conflict with the Blue House and the ruling party, and has been asked to voluntarily resign. The defining moment was the National Assembly’s request for an audit without political consideration that the early closure of the Wolseong Unit 1 of the Korea Nuclear and Hydroelectric Power Board (KHNP) in June 2018 was imperative to comply with the pre-nuclear post-nuclear stance of the Moon Jae-in government. Furthermore, the voices of the Democratic Party demanded the impeachment of President Choi, saying: “I am deliberately trying to scratch the promise of President Moon” and “I am grateful for the result.” The Blue House proposed former Deputy Justice Minister Kim Oh-soo for the position of the audit committee, but Choi rejected him, which is an evaluation that made the relationship worse.

Accordingly, a strict audit of the presidential advisory committee, etc., was interpreted by some to be “isn’t it Jaehyung Choi’s counterattack?” However, the Audit and Inspection Board said: “There is no political intention. It revealed that there was a problem with a problem. Isn’t it weirder to hide this? In this regard, an official of the Blue House also said: “The Blue House does not have a special position on the results of the auditor’s audit.”

Reporter Yoon Seongmin [email protected]