2024.07.30. The Fair Economy — The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it will open a public comment period on the 31st for a revised bill to the Official Information Disclosure Act, aiming to minimize unfair, malicious requests for information disclosure and operate the system more efficiently.
According to the Ministry, this legislative amendment is part of the "Measures to Prevent Malicious Civil Complaints and Strengthen Protection for Civil Servants Handling Complaints," which was jointly announced by relevant ministries on May 2.
In the process of gathering on-the-ground opinions to prepare these measures, local governments, public employee unions, and front-line civil servants suggested "improving the information disclosure request system" as one of the urgent tasks needed to minimize malicious complaints.
A review of the main contents of the revised bill shows that it establishes criteria for judging unfair or excessive requests that deviate from the legislative purpose of the Official Information Disclosure Act, as well as grounds for closing such requests.
Previously, even if a requester made an unfair or excessive information disclosure request, it had to be processed, leading to administrative waste. In the future, such requests can be closed.
However, to prevent arbitrary judgment by individual civil servants, decisions on whether a request is unfair or excessive and whether to close it will be made through a resolution of the "Information Disclosure Deliberation Committee" established at each agency.
The criteria for judging unfair or excessive malicious requests are explicitly stated in the revised bill based on Supreme Court of Korea precedents. The relevant provisions are planned to be further improved for greater effectiveness through various opinion gathering and discussions during the public comment period.
Additionally, the amendment establishes grounds for closing duplicate requests and streamlines the processing procedures for information disclosure requests of a civil complaint nature, enabling each institution to handle information disclosure requests efficiently.
It also establishes grounds for closing a request when the same information disclosure request is transferred again from another institution, and allows for the omission of notifications for repeated requests.
Until now, even information disclosure requests with a civil complaint nature were processed collectively. From now on, civil complaints received as information disclosure requests will only handle suggestions and inquiries related to information disclosure. Other general civil complaints will be automatically linked to e-People and other channels to avoid inconvenience to the public.
Furthermore, if a requester withdraws a request during processing or fails to pay the fees more than twice, they will be required to pay the expected costs of information disclosure in advance, aiming to prevent waste of administrative power and resources.
In parallel with this legal amendment, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will also implement system and institutional improvements to enhance the convenience of citizens requesting information disclosure by the end of this year.
First, information that is closely related to people's lives and frequently requested will be designated as 'livelihood-related information,' with support for rapid processing through the provision of standard forms and other measures.
Additionally, the ministry plans to improve convenience by allowing searches not only by document title but also by attached file names when searching the information list on the Information Disclosure Portal.
Moreover, a policy research service is underway to advance the model for proactive disclosure of information. The ministry aims to update the types and classification system of proactively disclosed information to match public demand, design a new proactive disclosure model that specifies disclosure methods, and enhance public access to key information.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will conduct a 40-day public notice period from the 31st to September 9, gathering diverse opinions from citizens, related agencies, and others, and will incorporate them into the amendment.
The amendment can be viewed in the Official Gazette and on the Korea Ministry of Government Legislation website (http://opinion.lawmaking.go.kr), and related opinions can be submitted by mail, fax, or through the Korea Ministry of Government Legislation website.
Ko Gi-dong, Vice Minister of the Interior and Safety, said, "We will work to reduce the administrative burden on civil servants caused by unfair information disclosure requests, while swiftly processing legitimate information disclosure requests to guarantee the public's right to know. During the pre-announcement period, we plan to gather a variety of opinions and reflect them in the legislative amendment as much as possible."
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