PPP calls for field-focused policy push after national audit

The People Power Party said Tuesday that "the time has come to move the national audit from the assembly hall to the field."

Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik made the remarks at a public reporting event on the national audit held at the National Assembly that morning. Jeong singled out former Cultural Heritage Administration chief Yoo Hong-jun as one of the most memorable figures from this year's audit, saying a calligraphy work displayed at the National Museum of Korea as the work of a patriotic independence activist turned out to have been created by a pro-Japanese collaborator.

"It was a personal item Yoo had purchased at an online auction for 50,000 won ($37)," Jeong said, adding that the episode "symbolizes where the Lee Jae Myung government stands today."

Jeong said the audit had shown that across all areas of state affairs, the government was promoting policies that deceived and misled the public — much like Yoo had done — and that the more the truth came to light, the uglier the reality appeared. "To sum up this year's national audit in one phrase: the Lee Jae Myung government is on the road to failure," he said.

He also took aim at the Democratic Party of Korea, saying it had been "consumed with shielding the administration by refusing to accept any key witnesses" and had "consistently resorted to a muddying strategy, attacking our party's lawmakers as if they were agencies under audit."

Jeong said the party had avoided, concealed and defended problems rather than taking the straightforward approach of acknowledging what went well, honestly admitting what did not and seeking ways to improve. "That is the surest path to the administration's downfall," he said.

Jeong stressed the importance of field-centered activities now that the audit has concluded. He called on standing committees to follow up on the government failures and policy alternatives uncovered during the audit by taking their work directly to communities. "Please make every effort to pursue field-centered policy activities so that the public can feel the impact of the problems identified and the alternatives proposed during the national audit," he said.

PPP Policy Committee Chairwoman Im Yi-ja cited soaring jeonse and monthly rent prices, the hasty introduction of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds and the abolition of supplementary investigative powers, calling the audit "a national audit that laid bare the Lee Jae Myung administration's all-encompassing incompetence and arrogance."

Im said exposing problems alone would not improve people's lives, and that translating the issues identified during the audit into legislation and budget measures was the party's responsibility.

She said tasks requiring legal changes would be addressed through legislation in the regular parliamentary session, while those requiring funding would be tied to next year's budget deliberations. "We will ensure that bills and budgets are directed at resolving the hardships people face — from finding and keeping jobs, to the income and management burdens on small merchants, the self-employed and farmers, to the caregiving burdens on families," she said.