Legislative discussions have begun in earnest on shifting the management of national and local government buildings from a reactive repair model to a preventive asset management system.
Rep. Bok Ki-wang of the Democratic Party of Korea, who represents Asan-gap in South Chungcheong Province and serves as floor whip of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, said Thursday he co-hosted an expert seminar on government building management efficiency at the National Assembly Members' Office Building, together with the Ministry of Interior and Safety's Government Complex Management Headquarters and the Architecture and Urban Research Institute.
About 50 participants from the National Assembly, central and local governments, academia, research institutions and the private sector attended the seminar. They reviewed the fiscal burden posed by the growing number of aging government buildings and the limitations of the current management regime, and discussed the key provisions and areas for improvement in a proposed Government Building Management Framework Act that Bok is preparing to introduce as the lead sponsor.
According to Bok, the building management systems of the central government and local governments are currently separate, and the legal foundation needed to link medium- and long-term management plans, performance assessments and budget planning is inadequate. The only relevant regulation is a presidential decree, and even that has a limited scope, compounding confusion in the field. Critics have long noted that this has led to a recurring pattern of reactive repairs carried out only after problems arise.
As of last year, 3,861 central and local government buildings had been standing for 30 years or more since completion, a figure projected to surge to 10,444 by 2050. Even Government Complex Sejong, which opened in 2012, will reach the 30-year aging threshold in 16 years. Amid this rapid deterioration, an analysis presented at the seminar found that shifting from reactive repairs to preventive maintenance could save up to 3.4 trillion won ($2.3 billion) in public funds over the next 25 years.
"When I was mayor of Asan in 2016, I had the Onyang 6-dong community center built with passive-house certification, cutting heating energy use to one-tenth that of a standard building," Bok said. "The question I started asking then — how to save public money and deliver better administrative services to residents — has led me all the way to today's discussion on enacting the Government Building Management Framework Act."
He added that even Government Complex Sejong, which opened in 2012, already needs to be thinking about aging, yet there is no proper law to address it. "I will soon introduce the Government Building Management Framework Act as the lead sponsor — a bill centered on five-year medium- and long-term planning, performance assessments and the establishment of a government building management support center," he said. "I will actively review the expert opinions heard at the seminar and craft a high-quality law that eases the fiscal burden on future generations."
Kim Ha-gyun, head of the Ministry of Interior and Safety's Government Complex Management Headquarters, said the focus of building management must shift from simply constructing well to maintaining buildings in good condition throughout their entire life cycle — spanning decades after completion. "Through the government building management support center and G-FMS, a data-driven information system, we will reduce the administrative burden on local governments and front-line agencies and support scientific management," he said.
Park Hwan-yong, president of the Architecture and Urban Research Institute, said low-utilization public buildings should be reconfigured to suit local conditions in response to population decline and regional depopulation, and repurposed as community hub facilities combining administrative, welfare and cultural functions. "The institute will actively support the on-the-ground implementation of the law through management plan development, performance assessments, staff education and consulting," he said.
Kim Yeong-hyeon, a research fellow at the Architecture and Urban Research Institute who delivered the keynote presentation, said the Government Building Management Framework Act should not simply add inspection items or regulations, but should connect five-year management plans, integrated performance assessments, budget planning, project implementation and performance evaluation into a single operating system. "The results of performance assessments must feed directly into remodeling, energy improvements, space reorganization and investment prioritization," he said.
Kim Do-nyeon, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University who moderated the session, said that to ensure the law's effectiveness, the roles and responsibilities of the central government and local governments must be clearly defined while designing a system flexible enough to reflect each region's administrative needs and fiscal conditions.
Participants agreed on the need to establish five-year national and agency-level building management plans, conduct integrated performance assessments covering structural safety, facilities, energy and space, link assessment results to budget planning, set up a government building management support center, and build an integrated information management system.
They also called for ensuring consistency with existing laws on buildings, facilities, disasters and energy, and for developing measures to address cost-sharing between the central government and local governments, professional staffing support, standardization of management data and phased implementation of the new regime.
Bok plans to introduce the Government Building Management Framework Act as the lead sponsor in the near future, faithfully incorporating the expert and field voices heard at the seminar, and to advance the legislative process without delay to establish a preventive building management system that enhances the safety and value of the nation's public assets.
bigroot@heraldcorp.com
