The Office for Government Policy Coordination said on the 20th that it has selected 30 tasks for the second round of its National Normalization Project, including curbing junket-style overseas trips by local council members, preventing the improper use of no-bid contracts, improving bidding practices in construction, protecting the addresses of domestic violence victims and tightening rules on illegal signage.
In the area of structural corruption and misconduct, the government will act to prevent junket-style trips and the improper use of no-bid contracts by local council members, and to stamp out the misuse of worker welfare funds set up for employees. Practices that undermine fairness, such as bid-rigging in construction projects, were also included.
The largest number of tasks, 10, went to blocking circumvention schemes. The government plans to expand the use of nondisclosure agreements to prevent technology theft carried out under the guise of negotiations. It will also close gaps in the system so that perpetrators of domestic violence cannot exploit litigation procedures to learn their victims' addresses. Responses to insurance fraud will be strengthened through greater information sharing and joint investigations.
To block improper gains, the government will crack down on unauthorized occupation of roads, including the installation of illegal signs, and on the practice of passing off imported goods as domestic products or laundering country-of-origin labels.
On legislative and institutional changes, the government will push to introduce a standing public reporting system for security vulnerabilities, allowing white-hat hackers to find and report flaws in good faith. Military service procedures, including the choice of enlistment dates and selection methods, will also be revised to reflect the preferences of young adults.
Under institutional and practice improvements, the government will expand the disclosure of pay information in job advertisements so that applicants know wages and other working conditions before applying, and will strengthen the consumer protection obligations of online platforms.
The National Normalization Project is a government-wide effort to correct entrenched abnormal practices and rules as well as illegal and irregular conduct, with the aim of building what officials describe as a fair, transparent and reasonable society. A first round of 164 tasks was selected in May and has been under way since. Among them, the government imposed strong sanctions on price-fixing in raw materials such as eggs, flour and starch sugar, prompting price cuts in the cartelized items and in processed foods including bread, instant noodles and snacks. Illegal structures along rivers and in valleys were surveyed nationwide, and 35,683 cases had been cleared as of October. The government also required standard prices for parasols and other rental items to be posted at beaches nationwide, and revised rules so that lodging, restaurant and taxi operators can face suspension of business or licenses from a first offense for failing to post prices or for not honoring posted prices.
In addition, retiree groups from the Korea Expressway Corporation were barred from participating in highway rest area businesses and ordered to withdraw from them, and penalties in bidding were introduced for companies that hire the agency's retirees. To prevent unlawful operation of ambulances, including private use, real-time GPS transmission was made mandatory and operating records must now be created and kept electronically.
The government began identifying second-round tasks in August to keep improving the unreasonable rules and practices that remain. Ministries gathered public suggestions and field opinions to compile about 200 candidate tasks, and a coordinating task force at the Prime Minister's Office reviewed them with a focus on how tangible they would be for the public before settling on 30. The second round places particular weight on blocking schemes that exploit gaps in policy and regulation for undue gain, and on resolving inconveniences and irrational rules that people encounter in daily life.
The government will designate the normalization tasks, including the second round, as core assignments for each ministry and push them forward quickly, while the Prime Minister's Office will monitor and manage progress and results. Tasks that can be handled swiftly within the executive branch, such as revisions to presidential decrees, ministerial rules or internal guidelines, will be prioritized for results this year, and progress will be reflected in the government's performance evaluations.
"Finding and correcting unreasonable practices and gaps in the system that have been overlooked simply because they were customary must go on without interruption," said Lim Ki-keun, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination. "The government will carry out these tasks responsibly to the end, and we will explain and communicate the results in various ways so that the public can easily understand them."