The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) submitted an opposing opinion on the enforcement decree bill for the Major Crime Investigation Agency (Jung Sucheong), which launches in Oct. this year. It said the requirement to notify Jung Sucheong when major crimes are detected during investigations could undermine the CIO's investigative independence and secrecy (confidentiality).
The CIO said at a regular briefing on the 30th that it opposed the enforcement decree bill for the Jung Sucheong Act and submitted revised opinions the previous day in an official document to the establishment support team for Jung Sucheong under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
The enforcement decree bill the CIO took issue with contains a clause that says, "When another investigative agency detects a major crime in the course of investigating a crime, it shall notify the head of the Major Crime Investigation Agency, but if the content of a complaint or accusation is unclear or there is no practical benefit to an investigation, it shall be excluded from notification."
The CIO's position is that if the enforcement decree bill is implemented as is, the CIO's independence could be hollowed out. Jung Sucheong, which is under the direction of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), would become aware of most of the cases the CIO is currently investigating while maintaining security, and such information could travel up the chain of command.
The CIO also says the enforcement decree bill runs counter to the CIO's priority investigative authority and the purpose of the detection-notification system. Because detection notification is a mechanism that allows the CIO to exercise its transfer request authority in a substantive way, the notification flow should reasonably go from Jung Sucheong to the CIO.
However, the CIO explains that the bill is designed in reverse because it requires the CIO to notify Jung Sucheong, which does not have priority investigative authority. In particular, it expressed concern that if the clause remains, confusion between agencies will be unavoidable because most of the CIO's investigative subjects under the Jung Sucheong Act overlap with Jung Sucheong's investigative subjects.
In response, the CIO said it requested that the enforcement decree bill be revised to exclude the CIO's investigative subjects from Jung Sucheong's detection-notification scope. The CIO said, "We hope sufficient discussion will take place during the remaining period."