Ministries in Survival Game
Government Officials Struggle to Keep Jobs Afloat in New Administration
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
Officials of economic ministries are struggling to keep their jobs and various policies afloat ahead of the advent of a new administration next February. Most presidential candidates pledge to restructure administrative organizations for a ``more efficient’’ government.
By and large, those in power tend to increase the number of public servants _ especially in their last days in office ― for more votes in elections. But the transition period is a ``cold season’’ for the officials, who have to expose themselves to the bleak wind of change.
Lee Myung-bak, a former Seoul mayor and now the front-running presidential candidate, said that he will overhaul government organizations if he wins the election.
While the conservative candidate pursues a broad categorization, his Grand National Party (GNP) has also issued a booklet of campaign platforms which exemplified cases of other OECD countries with ``more or less than 10’’ ministries and offices.
Currently, there are a total of 18 ministries and offices in the central government under the Roh Moo-hyun administration. But some of them, which face the fate of merger and abolition more than others, are busy developing logic to defend themselves.
For example, officials from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), which has been a major target of criticism from the country’s large business groups, are in a tense situation as Lee, a pro-chaebol figure, is highly likely to be elected.
Lee, a former Hyundai Group executive, vowed to scrap a lot of government restrictions on the businesses such as the equity investment ceiling system, which the antitrust regulator has firmly advocated.
While trying to wipe out ``misapprehension’’ about its policies on one hand, the FTC is also focusing on the other on the self-assertion that the country should at least adhere to current policies for fair competition in order to maintain the market order.
``I expect that there won’t be any significant changes since the role of our commission would get more and more important in the market economy, though the candidates have different economic policies,’’ an FTC official said on condition of anonymity.
Officials at the Ministry of Information & Communication (MIC) and the Ministry of Science & Technology, which often faced shutdown in previous administrations, have also been bracing themselves for various possibilities.
One of the worst-case scenarios is the merger of the two ministries with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy.
``Every ministry has been operating with reasons of existence. We admit that there could be a partial reorganization. But it would be inappropriate if the ministries and offices went through such drastic restructuring under every administration,’’ said an MIC official.