The Busan Metropolitan Council has decided to postpone action on a revised ordinance that would significantly expand the number of public agency heads subject to personnel hearings. While the council agrees with the principle of strengthening vetting for agency heads, it judged that immediate implementation of the system would inevitably disrupt city administration, given that a considerable number of public agencies under the Busan Metropolitan Government currently have no leaders in place.
The council's Steering Committee announced on the 27th that it has suspended its review of the recently proposed "partial revision to the personnel hearing ordinance" and will discuss it again in the next session.
The revision calls for expanding the number of public agencies subject to personnel hearings from the current 10 to 17, and for reorganizing the operating system so that a special personnel hearing committee and the relevant standing committees would each conduct hearings depending on the nature of the agency.
While the Steering Committee agreed with the intent of strengthening personnel vetting, it judged that adjusting the timing of implementation should come first. The reason is that with 12 public agencies under the Busan Metropolitan Government currently lacking heads, a sudden increase in the number of agencies subject to hearings could further prolong the appointment process and widen the administrative gap. In particular, the committee's position is that, as the ninth popularly elected local government is in its early stages, priority needs to be placed on administrative stability and the normalization of public agencies.
In addition, the view was raised that the entire scope of agencies subject to personnel hearings should be redesigned, including public agencies not covered by this revision. The judgment is that establishing reasonable standards for all public agencies, rather than adding only some agencies, could enhance the completeness of the system.
Accordingly, the council plans to maintain the principle of strengthening vetting for public agency heads while comprehensively reviewing the target agencies through consultation with the Busan Metropolitan Government, and to reintroduce the revision in the next session.
"There is no change in the direction of expanding the scope of personnel hearings to strengthen the council's oversight function, but if the system is implemented hastily and a gap arises in the operation of public agencies, it could ultimately lead to harm for citizens," said Kim Jae-woon, chairman of the council's Steering Committee. "We will minimize leadership vacancies at agencies while comprehensively reviewing all target agencies to establish a well-developed personnel hearing system."
