Parliament audit ends with few gains: political watchers

The National Assembly's regular audit virtually ended Friday, with political watchers pointing out that the lawmakers failed to come up with constructive results due to a series of boycotts and partisan quarrels.

The regular audit, which kicked off on Sept. 26, started amid the absence of the ruling Saenuri Party, which had refused to take part in proceedings on the controversy over the neutrality of the parliamentary speaker.

Saenuri said Speaker Chung Sye-kyun unfairly took sides in the passage of a motion to dismiss new Agriculture Minister Kim Jae-soo on ethical lapses, which even led to a hunger strike by party chief Rep. Lee Jung-hyun.

Chung, who is originally from the Minjoo Party of Korea, effectively fueled the controversy when he was heard in a voice recording saying that the ruling party should not "ask for something for free," indicating the speaker may have wanted to utilize the dismissal motion to induce Saenuri to make concessions on other issues that are important to the opposition.

While the ruling party eventually ended the protest a week afterward, the repercussions continued throughout the later parts of the audit as the parties engaged in existing and new political wrangling rather than bringing key issues important to the people and the country to the table.

Saenuri blamed the opposition parties for the deadlock at the National Assembly, adding they only focused efforts on criticizing President Park Geun-hye, aimed at gathering support ahead of the presidential race in 2017.

"The parliament must accept the public's criticism that the audit only focused on the upcoming presidential election and ignored the livelihoods of the people," Rep. Kim Gwang-lim of Saenuri said.

The opposition bloc, however, said they were unable to roll out proper audit proceedings due to the tie between Saenuri and the presidential office.

For one, opposition parties have been claiming that Cheong Wa Dae is suspected of being involved in raising some 80 billion won ($70 million) in funding for the controversial Mir and K-Sports foundations from the country's major conglomerates. The foundations were created to promote cultural content that can contribute to national economic growth.

The debate surrounding the transparency of such foundations hindered lawmakers from handling other issues, political pundits said.

Throughout the weeks of the regular audit, lawmakers were criticized for making hasty accusations.

Rep. Park Jie-won of the People's Party had announced that the country's spy agency has been taking steps to prepare Park's retirement home, which was later revealed to be groundless.

The Minjoo also accused the head of the Korean Intellectual Property Office of using his power to influence a local defense company to hire his son. It later turned out the case involved a person with the same name as his son.

Rep. Han Sun-kyo of Saenuri then came under spotlight after making an alleged sexist remark to a female lawmaker from Minjoo.

A union of nongovernmental organizations that oversees the parliament's audit every year gave an "F" to the outcome of the first audit held by the 20th National Assembly, marking the lowest grade in 18 years. The grade is a notch lower than the "D" earned by the preceding parliament.

The official closing date of the audit is slated for Wednesday, although most of the key proceedings will end Friday. (Yonhap)