By Yi Whan-woo
Ever since a bipartisan agreement on the content of the Sewol-related bills was finally reached on Oct. 31, the eyes of political observers and the media have been fixed on the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
It will have greater powers if two proposed government agencies tasked with monitoring and improving safety as well as personnel management in bills that seek to restructure government entities are passed in the National Assembly.
The tentatively named Ministry of Public Safety would serve as the country’s control tower in the event of natural and man-made disasters. It would consolidate the roles of the Coast Guard and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) that will be dismantled.
The bills will also allow the PMO to take over management of civil servants, currently handled by the Ministry of Security and Public Administration (MOSPA).
But some experts are skeptical about the effectiveness of the proposed restructuring.
Im Tobin, a professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University, downplayed the benefits of such reforms.
“The PMO’s role is to coordinate the work of ministries, not to intervene and take them over,” Im said.
If the bills are approved, the PMO will have five organizations, up from three, under its supervision. Currently the PMO oversees the work of the National Court Administration, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs and the Ministry of Food and Drugs Safety.
The Oct. 31 accord between the two rival parties came 199 days after the Sewol ferry tragedy on April 16 which claimed 304 lives, most of them high school students.
A lack of cooperation among agencies set up to handle emergencies, such as the Coast Guard, NEMA and MOSPA, as well as corrupt business ties between bureaucrats and entrepreneurs are attributed as the direct and associated causes of the country’s worst ever maritime disaster.
The Sewol-related bills mainly call for an independent investigation to be conducted into the cause of the ferry disaster, the dismantlement of the Coast Guard and NEMA, and the confiscation of all profits earned through criminal activities related to the sinking of the ferry. Also sought is the establishment of a personnel management sector to be put under the supervision of the PMO.
The proposed two agencies would be led by a minister and a vice-minster-level official, under a bipartisan agreement reached between the political parties.
Previously, the Park Geun-hye administration limited the role of NEMA, which was under MOSPA, to responding to natural disasters, while MOPSA became responsible for dealing with the aftermath of man-made accidents.