Acting Board of Audit and Inspection chief Kim In-hoe said on the 3rd, announcing the findings of the task force on overhauling the Board of Audit and Inspection's operations, "I apologize to those who suffered from political audits and excessive audits."
Kim said, "Regarding the audits of the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (ACRC), the audit of the killing of a public official in the West Sea, and the verification audit of the disabling of North Korean guard posts (GPs) carried out by the Board of Audit and Inspection under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, we confirmed illegal and improper wrongdoing across the audits." Kim added, "The leadership of the Board of Audit and Inspection used personnel authority and inspection powers as weapons to lead employees to conduct political audits and excessive audits." Kim went on, "Acts that are shameful as a human being were acts that the Board of Audit and Inspection must not commit."
Kim said, "In particular, I offer my deepest apology to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy officials who were acquitted by the Supreme Court after lengthy investigations and trials over the Wolseong nuclear plant audit, and to former ACRC Chair Jeon Hyun-hee, who was investigated by prosecutors over the ACRC audit and received a nonindictment disposition."
The Board of Audit and Inspection launched the task force to overhaul its operations on Sept. 16, after the launch of the Lee Jae-myung administration. Until early this month, for about two and a half months, the Board of Audit and Inspection examined seven audits by the previous administration's Board of Audit and Inspection that the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and others had intensely challenged. The seven audits are: ▲ Wolseong nuclear plant ▲ Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) ▲ killing of a public official in the West Sea ▲ delayed deployment of THAAD ▲ North Korean guard posts (GPs) ▲ presidential residence ▲ alleged statistics manipulation.
The Board of Audit and Inspection said, "Given that the seven audits were led by former Secretary-General Yoo Byung-ho (now an audit committee member) using the Special Investigation Bureau, and that related details were disclosed to the media after requests for investigation, it is hard to deny criticism that these were political or targeted audits." The Board of Audit and Inspection said, "Under Yoo's coercive leadership, the internal control system was neutralized and arbitrary audits became possible."
Accordingly, the Board of Audit and Inspection said it will propose to the government the abolition of the Special Investigation Bureau. It also said it will create a "audit-commencement advisory committee" with outside experts to decide whether to launch audits that draw high public interest and are sensitive.