By Kim Rahn
The Moon Jae-in government has initiated inspections and audits into key projects carried out under the previous conservative administrations and corruption allegations involving them.
It plans to revive a “trans-government anti-corruption consultative body” as part of Moon’s election campaign pledge to clear out “deep-rooted evils.” Moon will preside over the consultative body comprised of chiefs of the National Intelligence Service, the prosecution, the National Tax Service and other major government organizations.
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), which was the ruling party under the two former presidents, claims the move is political retaliation.
The prosecution searched the files of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the country’s sole aircraft developer and manufacturer, last week, signaling a full-scale inspection into corruption allegations in the defense industry. KAI allegedly made an illicit profit of 24 billion won ($21 million) by inflating the costs for the government project to develop the new Surion utility helicopter.
The Board of Audit and Inspection also announced Sunday that the helicopter failed in many categories in safety tests and asked the prosecution to investigate Defense Acquisition Program Administration chief Chang Myoung-jin and two other officials for failing to supervise the KAI’s development procedures. It is also alleged that former President Park Geun-hye received reports of the helicopter’s safety problems but ignored them.
“I believe corruption in the defense industry is not just corruption, but is an act benefiting the enemy that threatens national security,” Moon said in a meeting with secretaries Monday. “This is not a matter of being conservative or liberal, but a matter of being patriotic or unpatriotic, and it is one of deep-rooted evils to be eradicated.”
Earlier in May, only 12 days after his inauguration, Moon ordered an audit of the Four Rivers Restoration Project carried out under the Lee Myung-bak administration. The Lee government poured over 22 trillion won of taxpayer money into the project to fight drought, but environmentalists claim the refurbishment worsened water quality.
Cheong Wa Dae also said Friday and Monday it had found in unused cabinets more than 1,600 documents created by the Park administration. Presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said these papers contained “unlawful” orders from then top officials on various issues such as Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong’s succession, a blacklist of artists critical of the government, the Sewol ferry tragedy, the comfort women deal with Japan, the state-authored history textbook and elections.
These documents are expected to influence ongoing trials in the massive presidential corruption scandal involving Park and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil.
If they contain clear evidence of illegalities by the Park administration, they will facilitate the inspection drive into the former governments.
As a control tower for the corruption eradication drive, Moon ordered the restart of anti-corruption meetings of heads of related state agencies, including the Fair Trade Commission, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Justice, the National Tax Service, the National Police Agency, and the Financial Services Commission. The meetings, presided over by the President, were introduced in 2004 under the Roh Moo-hyun administration but were barely held under the Park and Lee governments.
The meetings may replace the need for a separate committee to clear out deep-rooted evils, which Moon pledged to set up during his election campaign.
Regarding such drives, LKP Chairman Hong Joon-pyo said the “show of political retaliation” has begun.
“Since the five-year presidency system was introduced, a new government delves into corruption of the former government every five years; and it seems the Moon administration is not an exception,” Hong said on Facebook.
“The Moon government, which took power thanks to the Park administration’s corruption scandal, is holding a propaganda campaign with a bundle of unidentified documents by mobilizing live media broadcasts,” he said.