The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) plans to continue its pressure on the National Election Commission (NEC) through “institutional operation audits” (accounting audits), it has been confirmed. This comes after the Constitutional Court ruled that the BAI’s duty inspection of the NEC was beyond its authority. Now, the BAI intends to look into possible misconduct within the organization through accounting audits. It has already been noted that there were issues with budget utilization related to former NEC Secretary-General Kim Se-hwan’s “second phone.”
A BAI official told the Korea Times that the Constitutional Court determined their jurisdiction did not extend to duty inspections, but accounting audits are still possible. They explained that if misconduct is revealed during accounting audits, the NEC can be asked to investigate, and for suspected criminal acts, cases can be handed over to investigative authorities. This indicates that while the BAI may not directly conduct duty inspections, they believe they can identify and highlight issues through accounting audits and request investigations if necessary.
Previously, the Constitutional Court had decided on March 27 that the NEC was not within the scope of the BAI’s duty inspections as the BAI falls under the executive branch, specifically under the President. The BAI expressed difficulty accepting this in light of NEC’s current reality but stated that they would respect the decision and review its contents and intent to define future audit scope and targets for the NEC.
The BAI plans to examine budget usage and other accounting aspects to investigate issues within the NEC. Reportedly, former NEC Secretary-General Kim instructed staff to procure additional mobile phones ahead of the presidential and local elections while preparing to retire. He took these phones, presumed to be owned by the NEC, home without returning them upon his retirement on March 18, 2022, and only deleted the contents after the BAI’s audit began and the NEC requested their return. Additionally, it was found that the NEC had improperly covered the phone bills for Kim’s second phone.