Critics slam this year's parliamentary audit as 'worst ever'

This year's National Assembly audit was slammed by critics on Thursday as the worst to date, with civic groups denouncing both sides of the political sphere for failing to carry out a proper audit.

A monitoring group consisting of 270 different local civic groups here graded this year’s National Assembly audit a near-failing score of D-minus.

The National Assembly Audit NGO Monitoring Group called this year’s parliamentary audit, which kicked off Oct. 7 and is set to wrap up Friday, the worst such annual evaluation and assessment procedure hosted by the parliament to have taken place so far. The group has monitored and graded every annual Assembly audit that has been held here since its launch in 1999.

“Excluding the times that the audits were unable to be properly held due to the ruling parties’ boycotts, this year’s audit was the worst. All parliamentary standing committees attempted to carry out an investigation and not audits,” it wrote in its annual report.

The monitoring group criticized both the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea for failing to uphold the purpose of the audit, which is to inspect and assess government institutions.

“The Democratic Party carried out (a scenario) in which they were protecting their Chair Lee Jae-myung from legal risks, while the People Power Party failed to propose and promote clear policies and didn’t oversee whether people’s livelihoods were being cared for,” it pointed out.

Overall, critics have been denouncing the first annual parliamentary audit held by the 22nd National Assembly for creating a lot of noise but failing to get to the bottom of key issues.

On Oct. 15, NewJeans member Hanni appeared as a reference witness at a National Assembly audit of the Environment and Labor Committee, regarding workplace bullying and ostracism. She has claimed that she was ostracized in her management company amid the ongoing conflict between former Ador CEO Min Hee-jin, whom NewJeans has sided with, and parent company Hybe.

Her testimony garnered significant media attention for various reasons. Democratic Party Rep. Choi Min-hee was seen taking a photo of Hanni during the audit and later reportedly met her in private, prompting criticism from People Power Party Rep. Park Jeong-hun. "(Choi) seems like a hardcore fan of NewJeans. How can a lawmaker meet (a NewJeans member) in private during (a state audit)," Park said last week.

Seventeen parliamentary standing committees have audited a total of 802 government institutions over 20 days so far. The 17 standing committees included the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee and the Public Administration and Security Committee.