Gyeonggi Province is the first local autonomy in Korea to establish “Standardized Regulations for the Active Management of Public Institutions” to support the effective administration of public institutions in the province.

The Gyeonggi Public Institution Audit Council, established by Gyeonggi Province and its 28 public institutions to strengthen responsible and ethical management and revitalize self-auditing organizations, held its second regular meeting at the Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation on the afternoon of September 12 and decided to prepare and implement such regulations.

Public institutions carry out various policy projects, but there have been difficulties in the operation of related systems due to the lack of a higher legal basis to protect and support active administration. Therefore, the province has prepared standards that can be reflected in the regulations of each public institution.

The standards include grounds for establishing an active management action plan; measures for forming and operating an active management committee; preferential measures and support for active management departments, their leaders and personnel; specific immunity requirements for active management; and the role of organization heads in preventing and eliminating passive management.

Based on this, Gyeonggi Province will prepare an action plan for the active management of public institutions for release this month. All public institutions in the province plan to formulate active management operating regulations that reflect the standard draft according to the actual circumstances of each institution within this year.

Once the regulations are in place, public organization personnel will be able to actively carry out their work, including the Gyeonggi RE100, without the burden of audits.

In addition, the September 12 meeting also saw the discussion of related cooperation plans to eradicate abuses in the public sector, measures for fair the recruitment of public sector employees, measures to resolve the issues stemming from the longstanding failure to implement the National Human Rights Commission system, standards for public institution review processes in Gyeonggi Province, and the creation of an audit manual for public institutions.

The province plans to incorporate the results of the Gyeonggi Public Audit Council’s discussions into provincial audit policy and to notify relevant departments, such as guidance and supervisory departments, to secure their cooperation in incorporating these results into their work.

Gyeonggi Province Audit and Inspection Director General Choi Eun-soon said, “Laying the institutional foundation for public institutions to be proactive in their management is a great achievement from the perspective of Gyeonggi residents,” adding, “We will continuously strive to make changes for the better and create a Gyeonggi Province of opportunities for Gyeonggi residents to experience.”

Gyeonggi Province also held a training course for practitioners in the audit departments of public institutions to improve their practical skills, such as discussing actual audit cases in the fields of financial accounting and human resource recruitment by department, and preparing audit reports.

The Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, which hosted the meeting, was the first public institution to sign a business agreement to install solar power systems to realize Gyeonggi RE100. For this reason, Gyeonggi Province chose it as the meeting venue so as to encourage other public institutions to participate and promote related achievements.