Egotistical leader, irresponsible bureaucrats made total mess
The state auditors' report on the Four Rivers Restoration Project under the Lee Myung-bak administration reaffirms that it was a total failure.
The entire process of the fiasco _ from planning to implementing _ can be summed up as the joint product of an obstinate chief executive and irresponsible bureaucrats.
A cost-benefit analysis by experts stuns us. Korea will have poured 31 trillion won ($27.6 billion) into refurbishing the four largest rivers, but its economic effects total only 6.6 trillion won. Our fears that the largest public work in the nation's history would end up as its biggest flop have become a reality.
The most shocking thing about the project was the rule-of-thumb decision-making process of the administration. Former President Lee, faced with vehement public opposition to his pet project to turn the rivers into a "grand canal" connecting Seoul and Busan, changed it to a "virtual canal" plan. That explains why Lee instructed agencies to build weirs and dredge the rivers deeply _ to let large cargo vessels pass through.
At first, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport objected to the plan, noting that the canal construction could not be an alternative option to secure water resources. The Ministry of Environment also warned the project might turn the rivers into reservoirs which would severely aggravate their water quality. However, then-presidential secretaries browbeat the officials into accepting the president's instructions.
The recent report by the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) illustrates the evils of arbitrarily administering state affairs. Lee's stubborn and arrogant adherence to his campaign pledge in defiance of public opinion, the abuse of authority by his aides and the lethargic silence of bureaucrats and some government-patronized experts should share the responsibility for pouring the colossal amount of taxpayer money into the rivers.
The BAI is not free from blame. The top administrative watchdog should ask itself why it had to release a different inspection report whenever political power changes. The latest report should be its last one, a reminder that stresses the importance of the auditors' political neutrality and the all too obvious fact that politicians and bureaucrats must be held accountable even for the wrongs they committed in the past.
The state auditors' report on the Four Rivers Restoration Project under the Lee Myung-bak administration reaffirms that it was a total failure.
The entire process of the fiasco _ from planning to implementing _ can be summed up as the joint product of an obstinate chief executive and irresponsible bureaucrats.
A cost-benefit analysis by experts stuns us. Korea will have poured 31 trillion won ($27.6 billion) into refurbishing the four largest rivers, but its economic effects total only 6.6 trillion won. Our fears that the largest public work in the nation's history would end up as its biggest flop have become a reality.
The most shocking thing about the project was the rule-of-thumb decision-making process of the administration. Former President Lee, faced with vehement public opposition to his pet project to turn the rivers into a "grand canal" connecting Seoul and Busan, changed it to a "virtual canal" plan. That explains why Lee instructed agencies to build weirs and dredge the rivers deeply _ to let large cargo vessels pass through.
At first, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport objected to the plan, noting that the canal construction could not be an alternative option to secure water resources. The Ministry of Environment also warned the project might turn the rivers into reservoirs which would severely aggravate their water quality. However, then-presidential secretaries browbeat the officials into accepting the president's instructions.
The recent report by the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) illustrates the evils of arbitrarily administering state affairs. Lee's stubborn and arrogant adherence to his campaign pledge in defiance of public opinion, the abuse of authority by his aides and the lethargic silence of bureaucrats and some government-patronized experts should share the responsibility for pouring the colossal amount of taxpayer money into the rivers.
The BAI is not free from blame. The top administrative watchdog should ask itself why it had to release a different inspection report whenever political power changes. The latest report should be its last one, a reminder that stresses the importance of the auditors' political neutrality and the all too obvious fact that politicians and bureaucrats must be held accountable even for the wrongs they committed in the past.
