The blindfold of justice corrupted by dictatorship. The blindfold worn by Justitia, the Roman goddess of justice, is being transformed into a tool to obscure justice under the Lee Jae-myung administration. Hanmi Ilbo Graphic

 [Table of Contents]

① The Reform That Blinded the Board of Audit and Inspection

② The Administrative State of Loyalty = The Democratic Party's Election Machinery

③ Those Who Seized the Prosecutor's Sword

④ Judicial Politics and the Backstory of the Supreme Court Justice Expansion Bill

⑤ The Language of Reform, the Grammar of Dictatorship

“Rational administrative execution should not be stifled by audits and investigations.”

This single remark made by President Lee Jae-myung at a meeting with his senior secretaries and aides on July 24 was the starting point for reforming the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI). Subsequently, the Presidential Office officially announced a review of abolishing policy audits, and Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik stated at a briefing at the Government Complex Seoul on November 12 that "we will amend the BAI Act in the first half of next year to institutionally abolish policy audits."

Although the BAI is subordinate to the President, it is the only internal oversight body constitutionally designed to check the entire administrative branch. However, its eyes are now in danger of falling under the control of the administration. As the BAI's vision fades, the word "reform" is becoming a tool for absolution of power.

The BAI is the only internal check mechanism for the executive branch guaranteed by the Constitution. This is why it is designed not only to audit accounts but also to monitor the rationality and procedural legitimacy of policies. Although it is under the President, it is able to audit the President's administrative acts as a self-regulatory mechanism for power. However, the abolition of policy audits, which the Lee Jae-myung administration is pursuing, is fundamentally undermining this constitutional balance.

The Presidential Office explains this as "preventing the politicization of audits." This is because complaints have been raised by both the ruling and opposition parties that the BAI has conducted audits with political intentions in the past regarding policies such as nuclear phase-out, fiscal execution, and public institution hiring.

However, the proposed reform is not restoring the BAI's neutrality but rather weakening its oversight function by completely excluding "policy decisions" from the scope of audits.

The problem is that this discussion was not initiated within the BAI itself but was led by a TF under the Presidential Office's Senior Secretary for Policy Planning. This TF, which included the Ministry of Government Legislation, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the Ministry of Personnel Management, did not have a single BAI official participating.

In other words, the administrative branch, which should be subject to oversight, is changing the structure of the oversight body itself. Consequently, the "Act on the Board of Audit and Inspection Amendment Bill" proposed by Representative Park Soo-young of the People Power Party and submitted to the National Assembly at the end of October includes provisions limiting the BAI's audit scope to accounting and dereliction of duty and deleting the authority for policy audits. This is effectively the Presidential Office's intentions materialized in legislative form.

The BAI's policy audits are not mere administrative interference but the final process of verifying the conversion of public funds into policies. If these are abolished, the administration can escape all responsibility with a single statement of "it was a policy judgment."

Since the National Assembly's settlement review is also based on the BAI's audit results, the abolition of policy audits effectively neutralizes the National Assembly's settlement authority. The judiciary also makes decisions on state liability in administrative litigation based on audit results. Ultimately, both the legislative and judicial branches move further away from the control of administrative power.

Internationally, this trend is regressive.

Japan's Board of Audit (Kaikei Kensain) operates as a legally independent audit institution, although it belongs to the Cabinet. Recently, Japan has been strengthening "policy effect audits" that go beyond simple accounting checks to evaluate the effectiveness of policies and the rationality of budget execution.

For example, the 2023 Board of Audit report meticulously reviewed the efficiency of the Fukushima nuclear wastewater treatment budget and the appropriateness of policy responses, issuing over 80 recommendations for improvement to the government. In this way, Japan has institutionalized the BAI to oversee the entire process of public funds being executed as policies, even without substantial intervention in the administrative policy-making process.

In contrast, Korea is attempting to reduce the BAI's functions with the logic that "auditing policies stifles administration."

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is affiliated with Congress and functions as a check on the government by evaluating policy efficiency and budget execution responsibility.

The more democratic a country is, the more it expands audit functions and increases transparency, which is the trend of the times. However, Korea is heading in the opposite direction. The Lee Jae-myung administration calls this "protection of the public service." However, in reality, it is a "shield for the administration."

Civil servants' mistakes will be covered up, and budget abuses will be hidden. The BAI will be reduced to an accounting office, and policies will remain as irresponsible decisions. Ultimately, the abolition of policy audits is not about preventing the politicization of the BAI, but a process of institutionalizing the administration's self-exoneration.

Power without oversight eventually corrupts itself. The moment the BAI's eyes are blinded, the last mirror of democracy is shattered. The "abolition of policy audits" may be the first completed stage of administrative dictatorship disguised as reform.

The blindfold held by Justitia, the Roman goddess of law, was originally a tool of justice. It was a pledge of fairness, an unyielding stance before power. However, the BAI's blindfold is now being transformed from a tool of justice into a symbol of control. The moment the eyes of oversight are covered, the state is no longer above the law, and power no longer looks upon the people.

The next installment will discuss how the civil servant verification system is creating an "administrative state of loyalty."

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