The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said it opposes a plan under review by some ruling party lawmakers to transfer its authority to investigate the president and National Assembly members to a new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, calling the idea a setback for institutional checks.
"The Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and the police both fall under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, whose minister is appointed by the president," CIO spokesman Kim Baek-ki said at a regular briefing at the Gwacheon Government Complex on the 6th. "Assigning investigations of the president and of figures around him within the same chain of command to that same chain of command is a setback for the structure of checks and balances."
Democratic Party members of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee are weighing a plan to expand the CIO into a nationwide organization and task it with monitoring and investigating judges, prosecutors, police officers and investigators, while transferring authority over the president, lawmakers and other senior officials to the new agency. Under the current CIO law, the office's targets include the president, the prime minister, cabinet ministers, lawmakers, judges and prosecutors, and police officers of senior superintendent general rank and above. The Democratic Party lawmakers will hold a forum on the 7th titled "A Full Overhaul of the CIO's Functions."
Kim said the office has held no consultations with the National Assembly on the plan, but added, "We have stated repeatedly that checks among investigative agencies and a role for the CIO will be necessary after the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency is launched."
On the proposal to expand the office nationwide, Kim stressed that additional staffing would have to come with it. "Whether or not branch offices are added, we cannot handle it unless our workforce and organization grow," he said.
Responding to criticism of the office's thin investigative record, Kim acknowledged that "there are aspects in which we have not met the public's expectations," but said performance is hard to judge by case counts alone because the range of targets and crimes it may pursue is limited. "It would be appropriate to keep the existing scope of targets while revising the rules on related offenses and indictment powers," he added.
