109 Public Institutions to Be Cut, Yet Only 3 Research Studies Conducted? Questions Raised Over Feasibility

[Anchor]

Labor unions are strongly protesting the government's large-scale public institution consolidation plan. Controversy is expected to persist as it has been confirmed that there were almost no research studies conducted to evaluate the feasibility of the integration.

This is an exclusive report by reporter Baegun.

[Reporter]

On September 3, the government announced a reform plan to downsize 109 public institutions, which included merging the four port corporations across the country into one.

While the government stated this would eliminate overlapping functions and boost international port competitiveness, the labor union strongly opposed the move immediately following the announcement.

The union pointed out that a government research study back in 2011 had already concluded that the actual benefits of integration would be minimal when considering administrative power and costs.

[Lee Young-ho / Head of Incheon Port Corporation Labor Union (September 28): Present evidence, not expectations. Verify effectiveness, not just integration. And if there are no real benefits, boldly withdraw the plan.]

However, it was confirmed that the government pushed for the integration once again without conducting any additional research studies.

The same goes for the consolidation of other public institutions.

According to SBS's verification through the National Assembly with 30 central government ministries related to public institution consolidation, only three research studies were carried out: the integration of five power-generation public enterprises and the separation of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH).

Even among these, the research was either still ongoing or in the modification and supplementation stage.

[Kim Jong-yang / Member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee (People Power Party): Despite the need to go through sufficient discussion and deliberation processes, I get the feeling that such processes were omitted.]

Experts point out that while research studies are not mandatory, communication with stakeholders takes place during the research process, and therefore more explanation and consultation are needed even now.

[Choi Hyun-sun / Professor of Public Administration at Myongji University: Even if you conduct a study, the important contents within it should be communicated with stakeholders to derive appropriate measures. Now, they have to go back and go through the communication and processes they missed so far.]

The Ministry of Economy and Finance explained that although research studies were not conducted, the public institution reform plan was formulated through consultations with relevant ministries and private experts based on points raised by the media, the National Assembly, and the Board of Audit and Inspection.

It also stated that it plans to fully gather opinions from the labor unions of each institution moving forward.

(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News / Reported by Kang Dong-chul and Lee Seung-hwan | Video Editing by Jang Hyun-ki | Design by Hwang Se-yeon)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.