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| Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo, center, walks to attend a Cabinet meeting at the Government Complex in Seoul, Tuesday, along with Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, right, and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea. / Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
New Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo vowed Tuesday to get tough with incompetent bureaucrats.
After squeaking past a confirmation vote with questions still lingering over his ethical standards, Lee appeared keen to pursue the initiative stating, "I will make my recommendations to President Park Geun-hye for incompetent heads of government offices to be dismissed."
"From now on, the Prime Minister's Office will regularly inspect the work of ministers, vice-ministers and administrators, and carry out a comprehensive evaluation twice a year," Lee said.
He issued the warning at the first Cabinet meeting he presided over on behalf of President Park, and also set forth three tasks to regain public confidence in order to assure economic revival and achieve successful reforms in major sectors.
These are tightening discipline among civil servants, rooting out corruption and creating an invigorating atmosphere in the public sector.
"Those with lax discipline and poor performances will face a recommendation for their dismissal and other strict punitive measures."
Lee added that his office will conduct a frequent evaluation on important pending issues and that incompetent heads of government bodies will be held accountable.
"The biggest problem in the public sector is the easy-going attitude of government officials. Each government office is required to meet performance levels by discarding passive attitudes toward tasks and strengthening discipline," said the prime minister.
Meanwhile, the Office for Government Coordination, in line with four of its affiliated organizations, will serve as the control tower that will evaluate the performance of each office.
The evaluations will be carried out in the first and latter halves of the year with the first assessment expected to come in July or August.
Lee said that corruption is "like a cancer that creates distrust of the government."
"We will adopt a zero tolerance policy and eradicate corruption from officialdom," he said. "The Prime Minister's Office will take a leading role in the anti-corruption campaign."
Since last year, Park has vowed to fight corruption in the wake of various scandals that exposed deeply rooted corruption throughout society.
A recent example of corruption in the nuclear power industry resulted in the indictment of 100 people, while the defense industry has also been shaken to its foundations for the prevalence of corrupt ties that reached to the highest level of the military.
In addition, an entrenched network of corruption between maritime safety regulators and senior officials of the operator of the ferry Sewol were found to be one of the reasons for the tragic sinking of the vessel last year.
Lee said that his office will come up with plans soon to establish an environment to encourage government officials.
