[Exclusive] OPC found to be lowering performance goal every year

Sep 13, 2018, 09:22 am

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Source: The Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC)

By AsiaToday reporter Jang Sae-hee

Amid growing calls for regulatory reform for innovative economic growth, the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC), which is in charge of regulatory reform, seems to be busy making results just for show. It is pointed out that the OPC is focused on increasing high achievement rate by lowering its performance goal every year. Besides, problems regarding the OPC's passive attitude toward regulatory reform and its evaluation items are raised.

Such problems have been revealed after AsiaToday analyzed Wednesday a document by the OPC entitled, "The Office for Government Policy Coordination's Performance Plan and Result," submitted to the Bareun Mirae Party office of lawmaker Lee Tae-kyu, a member of the National Assembly's National Policy Committee.

In the "Guidelines for Preparing a Performance Plan for 2017" by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the target value of the performance indicators should be set specifically and rationally from aggressive business performance perspective, such as willingness to improve business method. It also recommends that the target value be set at the same level every year. It recommends not to set the target value below the past performance level unless there are special reasons.

There are four evaluation items of performance indicators for the OPC's regulatory reform: (1) the rate of recommendation for improvement and withdrawal, (2) the number of forums and listening sessions, (3) the rate of accepting improvement recommendations by ministries, and (4) the satisfaction level of regulation system users.

The OPC announced that it reached 100% of its improvement and withdrawal recommendation rate. However, it has been lowering its target every year.

In 2014, the OPC achieved 56.2 percent of performance, but announced that it achieved a target rate of 102% in 2015 by lowering its target to 53 percent. Then it reached 54.1 percent of performance in 2015, but again, lowered its target in 2016 to 53.8 percent. In 2017, the target was lowered to 58.4 percent, and the OPC marked 121 percent and 106 percent, respectively.

The second evaluation item evaluates the performance by the number of forums held. The OPC held 40 forums respectively in 2015 and 2016, but lowered its goal to 36 last year. In fact, they held 48 meetings last year, and self-praised that it reached 133.3 percent of its target.

In the case of the rate of accepting improvement recommendations by ministries, considered as one of the most important elements for regulatory reform, the OPC announced that it reached 109% of its target by lowering its target to 33 percent, which was far below the average of the past three years (34.9%) and the previous year's results (36.8%). However, its actual performance was 35.9 percent.

"The Office for Government Policy Coordination, which has to evaluate and coordinate the performance of the ministries, has been deliberately deceiving the public by lowering its target goal of its own regulation," lawmaker Lee said. "If it keeps fudging the result, regulatory reform will end up being an empty initiative."

#OPC #Office for Government Policy Coordination #performance goal #regulatory reform #Lee Tae-kyu