Here are 5 sample inauguration speeches for the Auditor General of the Republic of Korea.

Inauguration Speech of the Auditor General (New Year’s Day Speech of the Auditor General)

Dear employees of the National Audit Office, I stand here today with the great responsibility of being the first Auditor General of the Republic of Korea, as the head of the country’s supreme audit organization, after the first-ever personnel hearing for an Auditor General, and with the consent of the National Assembly.
First of all, it is my honor to be in charge of the National Audit Office, which has a long historical tradition and a constitutional independent status established with the establishment of the Korean government, and I am renewing my resolve with a heavy sense of mission.
I am also pleased to work with the staff of the National Audit Office, who have been striving to establish national accounting order and public service discipline under various difficult conditions. Having been in the position of being audited by you for the past ○ years, I understand you better than anyone else, and I have a special affection and expectation for you. I look forward to becoming a member of the National Audit Office family and working with you to build a bright future for the organization.
Over the past half-century since the establishment of the Korean government, the National Audit Office has steadfastly fulfilled its responsibility of establishing the principles and fundamentals of state management, even in the midst of a whirlwind of history, including the Constitutional Revolution.
We are now living in a world of endless competition where only the fittest survive in an era of globalization and openness. In order not to be left behind in this borderless competition and to leap forward as a world-class nation in the 21st century, I believe that it is an urgent task to unite national capabilities through social integration with a sense of responsibility.
However, when we look back at our current situation, law and order are not properly maintained, there are still many inefficiencies in the society at large, and major policies and reform measures for change are often delayed or stalled due to collective self-interest. At this point, I believe that the role of the National Audit Office is more important than ever before, and it is time for us to renew our resolve and attitude.
More than any other organization, the public has come to rely on us. I believe that my appointment as Auditor General at this critical time is in response to the call of the times and the public’s desire for me and you to work together to eliminate inefficiencies across the country, realize social justice through state reform, and open up a bright future for our country by establishing a transparent market economic order.
The National Audit Office has the difficult task of finding and resolving the public’s discomfort and anxiety and healing pathologies in every corner of society. In addition, it also has the role of inspecting and encouraging the adoption and implementation of survival strategies to survive the fierce competition in the 21st century globalization era. To do this, the National Audit Office must sometimes be a microscope to observe the details, and sometimes a telescope to look far into the future from a macro perspective.
Dear Audit staff, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my thoughts as the chief executive officer of the National Audit Office and to outline some of the basic concepts for the future operation of the Audit Office. First, in order to safeguard the constitutional status of the Audit Office and the independence of its work, we will strictly reject any unwarranted interference and drafts. Political neutrality and professional independence, which are the highest values of the National Audit Office, do not happen by themselves just because they are stipulated in the law. They can only be safeguarded by the determination and sense of mission of all employees, including myself. Only when the independence that our predecessors fought so hard to preserve is firmly rooted, can auditing without sanctuary be possible and the National Audit Office become an institution trusted by the people.
First, we will establish a diagnosis and evaluation system for major national policies and projects to ensure public accountability. Second, we will establish a permanent monitoring system for the legislative and implementation process of major policies and projects, including reforms promoted by the government, to ensure that policy issues required by the people and necessary for national development are selected as policy issues and properly implemented to achieve results. Going forward, the National Audit Office will play a central role in promoting government reform through an evaluation system for major policy projects and reform issues. Second, the role of the National Audit Office must be strengthened to a new level to ensure that not a single penny of taxes paid by the Korean people is spent in vain.
In addition to establishing an internal control system to ensure the rationality of budget execution and a transparent accounting order, accounting fraud and irregularities will be strictly dealt with to preserve the public treasury, and if there are legal or institutional obstacles that cause off-target budget execution or waste, they should be boldly improved. Third, the establishment of strict public service discipline is fundamental to reform and national development. The legitimacy and legitimacy of individual cases should be automatically secured by conducting job supervision centered on finding the causes of corruption and irregularities in public offices and prescribing root causes, and the damage or inconvenience caused to the public by the acts and omissions of public officials should be corrected in a bold manner. We should take a closer look at whether ministries’ selfishness and collective selfishness are causing waste and inefficiency by not taking necessary administrative measures in time, and neglecting the people who suffer unjustified damage. Fourth, the implementation of the Audit and Inspection Service with the people requires revitalization of the current public audit request system. In addition to actively accepting audit claims with the attitude of being closer to the people, the entire system should be reviewed in various ways to become a higher-level rights relief function. In addition, it should be established as a new role of the National Audit Office to induce public participation in the entire audit process and to ensure that audit results directly touch the skin of the people, so that the people can enjoy a safer and more comfortable life. Fifth, we would like to establish a practical support system for the National Assembly to reconsider its policy capabilities and strengthen its budget and fiscal deliberation functions. Through systematic inspection and analysis of the performance of major projects and the execution of the national revenue and appropriation budgets, we should support the National Assembly’s national deliberation activities as much as possible, and actively reflect the National Assembly’s audit requirements in our audit operations.
Next, we need to create a new culture of a productive and open audit agency. We should have a humble attitude in response to the accusations of conservative organizational culture and authoritarian behavior by some of the public regarding the passive and uncritical function of the audit agency. First, we should change the closed and conservative organizational culture to an open and enterprising culture. We should seriously listen to the opinions of the public sector under audit from the perspective of the public interest and maintain an open attitude to solve problems together. The audit agency’s function of checking and monitoring national affairs is important, but it should also become an advisor to the national government through its consulting function on the overall national affairs. I believe that securing expertise along with an open organizational culture is key to providing the right advice to the government. To this end, I believe that it is important to have fair personnel management based on merit and achievements rather than seniority. From this perspective, I believe that a comprehensive diagnosis of the audit agency’s organizational training and personnel management is necessary, and that there should be a serious review of the overall audit operation from a new perspective, including the audit attitudes and practices so far.
It is impossible to evaluate and criticize the government’s reform measures without making our own innovative efforts, and I expect the self-dedicated efforts and leadership of the senior staff in particular, as well as the active participation of all employees. I have always believed that the self-sacrificing leadership of any organization is crucial, and that reform can only be successful if it starts with a thorough self-reflection. I believe that a bright future for the National Audit Office is possible if such self-reflection and innovative efforts are seriously pursued.
Dear colleagues, I recognize that the nature of the job puts auditors in a position to be criticized rather than praised, but I hope that you will take pride in monitoring and supervising the public service and evaluating national affairs, and that you will always reflect and hone yourselves, upholding higher moral standards than any other public servant. By doing so, each of you will become the “light” that illuminates our society and the “salt” that prevents corruption. I hope that by working together with you in the future to implement the points I have just mentioned with zeal and sincerity, the National Audit Office will be reborn as an auditor with the people, an advisor to the government, and a bulwark of national order. Thank you.

Remarks by the Auditor General at the Opening Ceremony

Dear colleagues, today marks the 56th anniversary of the opening of the National Audit Office. First of all, I would like to express my deep respect and gratitude for the dedicated efforts and sacrifices of our senior auditors who have maintained our status as the premier audit organization since the establishment of the government. I would also like to recognize the hard work of our current staff, who have carried out their duties with enthusiasm and sincerity.
Looking back, since the establishment of the government in 1963, when the Board of Examiners and the Board of Inspection were merged and re-established as constitutional institutions, the National Audit Office has faithfully fulfilled its role as the watchdog of the nation’s affairs. The National Audit Office is the nation’s premier audit institution that ensures public sector accountability by performing the functions of accounting and auditing assigned to it by the Constitution and the Audit Act.
The National Audit Office believes that it has earned the trust and love of many people by faithfully fulfilling these responsibilities. However, amid the tidal wave of globalization and openness, all countries are facing fiercer competition for survival than ever before.
These global trends and national and societal circumstances require auditors to play an active role rather than rest on their laurels. Political borders exist, but capital and goods move freely without borders, and countries that are left out of this process are bound to be eliminated by the inexorable law of survival of the fittest. To make a country more competitive, not only must the private sector become more competitive, but also the productivity and efficiency of the public sector that supports it. Advanced economies, including OECD members, have long recognized the fundamental limitations of raising the competitiveness of the entire country without transforming the public sector and have been intensely promoting public sector reforms.
However, there are some concerns that Korea’s political, economic, and social conditions have not been able to adapt to these global trends due to various problems. Although the entire nation overcame the IMF foreign exchange crisis together, the aftereffects of the crisis remain in many parts of our society. In addition, the delayed economic recovery due to the stagnant domestic demand, youth unemployment, credit card failures, and financial market instability, as well as collective selfishness and conflicts between classes and regions, are becoming important factors that hinder our ability to survive in an era of unlimited competition and threaten our survival. In order to overcome these domestic and external difficulties and build a national powerhouse, I believe we need to make extraordinary determination and efforts from all of our people.
Dear employees!
When I took office in January last year, based on these thoughts, I set the basic goal of the National Audit Office’s operation to play a pivotal role in the national reform work to become an advanced first-class country in the 21st century, and set system auditing as the basis for audit operations to systematically diagnose problems and propose comprehensive fundamental improvement measures through full-time monitoring of major government policies, projects, and systems.
This is because we believe that traditional audit operations that are piecemeal and focused on detection after the fact are not sufficient to fulfill our mission of securing accountability in the public sector. Through system audits, the National Audit Office plans to focus all its audit capabilities on finding and improving structural factors such as institutions and environments that are the root of the problem, rather than just curing surface phenomena such as waste, inefficiency, and corruption in the public sector.
In order to support this new paradigm of audit operations, I reorganized the National Audit Office’s organizational structure by policy area and function in January last year, and established the basic framework for conducting system audits by establishing a monitoring system for the government’s top 100 policy projects. We have also made great efforts to establish an audit agency that serves the people by establishing a business complaint center, actively resolving complaints from businesses related to factory establishment and start-up, and making various institutional reorganizations to ensure that the National Audit Office fulfills its function as the people’s newspaper for audit requests. However, I would like to make a few requests to you, the staff, in order to further fulfill the vocation of the times and operate an audit agency that supports Korea’s leap toward becoming an advanced first-class nation.
First, we should continue to maintain and develop the operational framework of systemic audits. Although there are cases where some target organizations do not accept the audit results and react against them, it should be understood as an inevitable painful reaction caused by the large ripple effect of systemic audits. Of course, the auditors gathered here should strive to minimize controversy over the audit results by conducting more logical and thorough audits. However, we must keep in mind that the independence and neutrality of auditors will be severely compromised if we adopt a passive audit attitude out of a sense of self-interested backlash. Therefore, we should focus on system audits that seek fundamental solutions, such as improving laws and systems, with a comprehensive and macro view.
Second, we must continue to focus our audit capabilities on enhancing the vitality of the national economy and expanding its growth potential. We must revolutionize anti-market regulations and unreasonable administrative practices to create conditions for free and creative economic activities. We should check the progress of projects centered on the Northeast Asian economy and national balanced development measures, such as the creation of free economic zones, from the early stages to prevent duplication and confusion among government agencies. We should also continuously check current issues such as job creation and expansion of capital investment to resolve obstacles to their implementation, and pay attention to establishing proper labor-management relations and management innovation.
Third, we should listen to the voices of the people, such as various audit claims and complaints, and strive for citizen audits. We should not operate in a closed manner due to a formal misunderstanding of the independence and neutrality of auditors. Just as only companies that recognize and adapt to the needs of their customers will survive, the National Audit Office should always accept the needs of the people in its audits.
Fourth, I urge you to make every effort to maintain your professionalism and high ethics as auditors. In the past, we have made great efforts to improve the professionalism of the National Audit Office through special recruitment of professional staff such as certified public accountants, lawyers, and doctors, and through on-the-job training for employees. However, the Evaluation Research Center, which will soon be established to build a national evaluation infrastructure, will be required to conduct specialized research, analysis, and review in each national sector, so even higher professionalism will be required from both inside and outside. The professionalism of an auditor is first and foremost found in his or her ability to solve a given problem perfectly. A professional auditor must possess the following qualities: the desire to know the truth, the grit to never give up until the answer is found, and the sense of balance to consider multiple variables together to come up with the best alternative. In addition, all employees must uphold high morality and integrity so that the NAACP can continue to maintain its true authority and pride as the nation’s premier assessment organization.
Finally, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the exemplary institutions, outstanding departments and staff, and long-serving employees who have received honorable awards on this meaningful and joyous day. I would also like to congratulate the departments and employees who received the Cooperation Award and the Service Award for their exemplary work in the areas of unity among employees and interdepartmental support. And I know that the departments and employees who did not receive awards have worked just as hard as the departments and employees who did. I know there are great opportunities ahead, and in closing, I would like to wish you and your families good health and good fortune. Yours sincerely.

Greetings from the Auditor General on the occasion of the opening of the National Audit Office

Dear members of the National Audit Office family, we are gathered here today to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the opening of the National Audit Office and to renew our resolve by reflecting on our current location.
First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have steadfastly upheld the traditions nurtured by our predecessors and fulfilled your duties as auditors of the nation’s premier audit organization under difficult conditions.
As you are well aware, this year marks our 60th anniversary.
Looking back on the past years, we were a poor country living on the scraps of grass and wood after the tragedy of the 1950s, which destroyed our economic foundation.
Since the 1960s, the country has continued to grow and develop as a result of the successful economic growth strategy of the government under the strong leadership of the leader based on the enthusiasm of the people to live well.
The gross national income (GNI) per capita has increased from $20 in 2000 to $100,000 last year, and the gross domestic product (GDP) has also increased to $100 billion last year, ranking first in the world.
We have made leaps and bounds in shipbuilding, electronics production, and automobile production, and we are proudly leading the world in the digital and semiconductor sectors and biotechnology.
However, our economy has not been able to escape from the so-called “magic $100,000 dollar hole” for more than a decade after achieving a national income of $100,000 in the last ○○ year.
There are many reasons for this, but I believe that the fundamental problem is that we have not yet moved away from the regulatory systems and practices of the development era, without having systems in place that meet the global standards required in the era of unlimited globalization and informationization.
Since its inception, the National Audit Office has been fulfilling its role of securing accountability of the public sector through accounting inspections and job audits as authorized by the Constitution and the Audit Act,
Now, the audit direction of the National Audit Office will have to be newly adjusted in accordance with the tide of globalization and informationization. In other words, the old system of the industrialization era will have to be renewed and the audit capacity will be required to focus on the imperatives of the era of entering the $20,000 per capita era.
Since I took office in January 20, I have been making every effort to boldly improve and develop the lagging administrative system based on the belief that “when the audit office changes, the public sector changes, and when the public sector changes, our entire society changes.”
To this end, we have introduced system audits as the basis of our audits, which closely diagnose and analyze the structural problems facing government policies and businesses and propose root improvement solutions.
In addition, the system audit is supported by the establishment and operation of a monitoring system to detect and prevent confusion and disruptions in the project implementation process and interdepartmental conflicts at an early stage.
In addition, since system audits are not just about pointing out problems, but about the underlying measures to change relevant laws and policies, thorough management of the implementation of audit results is required. Therefore, we have established various systems to improve the effectiveness of audits, such as regularizing the holding of audit results and budgeting meetings with the budget ministry to link audits and budgeting, and introducing a centralized management system for audit results for three years.
Last year, in January, we established the Business Disadvantage Complaint Center. By the end of March this year, we had received more than 1,000 complaints from businesses, and we are actively working to resolve red tape in business activities by improving related systems so that unjustified denials of requests and delays in processing no longer continue. We have been well received by complainants by shifting our audits from focusing on “why did you do it?” to focusing on “why didn’t you do it?”
Now, turning to our own organization, it has been pointed out that we have a somewhat closed culture. We urgently need an organizational culture of open-mindedness and discussion in order to transform the National Audit Office into a more progressive and forward-looking organization. Earlier this year, we held a discussion meeting in which all members of the department, including department heads, participated as part of our efforts to renew our organizational culture.
Dear employees!
I dare to say that these efforts that we have all made together are showing visible results. I am pleased to see that our officers and employees are gradually inculcating systemic thinking, which is indeed an encouraging phenomenon, as the success of audit activities depends on the extent to which auditors can translate their experience and knowledge into system audits.
What I have learned from advocating and developing system auditing is that “auditing is the main tool for reforming national government.” Through various system audits, we have been able to unravel complex and intertwined causes of corruption and improve unreasonable regulations and systems, which has had a significant impact on the entire national government.
Now, not only is there a predominance of positive evaluation, but also the administration, the National Assembly, and the public debate understand the purpose of system auditing and recognize its achievements, and I feel rewarded and proud that efforts are being made to approach it systematically.
In addition, the upcoming establishment of the Institute of Appraisal Research will mark a significant milestone in the history of the National Audit Office.
The establishment of the Institute will further enhance our expertise in audit work and will contribute significantly to the advancement of the nation’s valuation capabilities. Let us all work together to make the Institute the best audit and valuation think-tank in the country.
Based on the above-mentioned successes and confidence in the system audit, the status of the Institute is increasing in the international community.
At the INTOSAI Extraordinary General Assembly held in Vienna, Austria, in January last year, I led the formulation of a strategic plan for INTOSAI, which was unanimously adopted.
In January of this year, he urged INTOSAI to take charge of the audit of the actual implementation of the tsunami relief funds in Southeast Asia, and received the full support of the auditors general of the participating countries by emphasizing that INTOSAI should become an international organization that contributes substantially to the international community.
Dear National Audit Office staff!
We must not be satisfied with the above achievements, but redouble our efforts to develop into an organization that is trusted by the public.
First, we must become a learning organization to further improve our system audits.
Each and every employee will have to learn system auditing and make it the basic principle of audit activities. To do this, we need to establish a culture of hard work, discussion, and a system of sharing knowledge. It is important for auditors to become a “learning organization” and create, accumulate, and share knowledge.
The world is already moving toward a “knowledge-based economy,” where knowledge is more important than capital or labor. If we fall behind this global trend, the consequences will be disastrous. The assessment that the United States is the absolute power in the world and the source of the power to achieve the American Dream is the mother of more than ○ million knowledge clubs, large and small, is very relevant to us.
Secondly, we need to mobilize the amount of scrutiny so that the main policies of the participating governments, which have just returned from the return point, can be firmly grounded and the results can be reaped.
To this end, we must not lose sight of the progress of major policies for even a moment, and we must boldly move away from the superficial and fragmentary nature of post-hoc audits and maintain an attitude of active and creative monitoring and research so that our administration can fulfill the mandate of the times.
Third, we need to be humble and resolute in dealing with external reactions to our oversight functions.
Recently, there have been changes in the environment surrounding our organization, such as some opposition to our audits of local self-governing entities. I would like to urge you not to be too sensitive to external reactions, as we must remain within the scope of our authority and responsibilities granted by the Constitution and the Audit Institute Act.
If we recognize that such environmental changes are both a threat and an opportunity, and respond to them with a proactive and creative attitude, we may be able to take our audit function to the next level.
Fourth, we must always thoroughly examine and polish ourselves and maintain a higher level of integrity than any other public servant. We must keep in mind that the legitimacy and power of auditing comes from high integrity. At a time when the public’s expectations and interest in the National Audit Office are greater than ever, I ask all of you to be especially mindful of self-management so that we do not become a liability to the organization through public or private misconduct.
Finally, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the model institution, the hospital’s outstanding departments and staff, and the long-serving employees who have received honorable awards on this happy day.
I would also like to congratulate the departments and their employees who received the Cooperation Award and the Achievement Award for exemplifying excellence in interpersonal relationships and interdepartmental support.
Finally, I would like to extend my sincere wishes for good health and happiness to you and your families. Thank you.

Example of the Auditor General’s commemorative speech at the opening ceremony

Dear Audit Institute Family! Today marks the 58th anniversary of the opening of our Audit Institute.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and respect to the senior auditors who have worked so hard to make the Audit Institute what it is today. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all of our employees who have been faithfully fulfilling their duties under difficult conditions.
In particular, this anniversary of the opening of the building is being celebrated in an environment where the West Building and the shelter have been refurbished in addition to the Main Building and the X Annex, and we look forward to working in a more pleasant environment once the ongoing construction of the Welfare Building is completed by the end of the year.
Looking back on the past, I believe that the National Audit Office has endeavored to fulfill its historical duties in accordance with the times and circumstances at each stage of Korea’s remarkable economic leap in a short period of time.
The Oversight Committee and the Council of Ministers, which were established with the establishment of the government in 1948, were the cornerstones of the founding of the country.
Since then, it has fulfilled its role as a supporter of economic development in the sixties and seventies, and as a vehicle to accelerate the country’s entry into a high-level industrial society in the eighties and nineties.
In particular, in the 21st century, the company has been deeply aware of the urgent need to build a national government operation system that meets global standards and world-class competitiveness, and has been working as a leader in national government reform by improving various unreasonable systems and practices.
After more than half a century of existence, the National Audit Office has firmly established itself as not only the country’s highest judicial institution, but also as a key institution in the evaluation of national government, and has earned the trust and love of the people.
Dear Inspectorate staff!
However, the reality we are facing demands that we should not rest on our past achievements, but rather put forth more efforts and efforts.
Currently, we are facing a more challenging international environment than ever before, with a wave of liberalization such as the Korea-U.S. FTA negotiations and the six-party talks being disrupted by North Korea’s missile launches.
Domestically, we are also experiencing a “period of testing and upheaval,” with fears of a double dip amid the recent water damage and domestic economic downturn, and collective tensions as seen in the ○○ law revision and the ○○ incident.
In such a difficult environment, we, the National Audit Office, will need to continue to promote the system audits that we have been conducting in a more robust manner, such as setting the right direction of policies and addressing the relaxed national atmosphere, so that the national goal of “Leading the 21st Century” can be carried out without interruption.
As you know, since I took office as Auditor General in March 20, we have consistently emphasized system audits that closely diagnose the structural problems facing government policies and projects and propose improvement measures at their roots.
This is because we believe it is urgent to improve the framework and systems created in the last developmental era to meet global standards in the changed environment of the 21st century.
The system audit, which was introduced at the end of the last 20 years while establishing a full-time monitoring system for the 100 major national policy issues, has faced some difficulties in its implementation.
However, thanks to your “sweat and passion,” I believe that it has now been firmly established as a “revolutionary audit paradigm” that can help us navigate the era of unlimited competition.
It is difficult to enumerate all of our audit accomplishments, but in the past year alone, we have achieved quite a few.
First of all, we urged the management reform of public enterprises, which have shown a tendency to regressive reform since the transition to the autonomous management system in 20, and conducted an intensive inspection of the budget management of ○ local governments on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of civilian self-government to guide the healthy development of self-government.
In addition, we improved various inefficient management and supervision systems, such as the state-owned property management system, and checked the status of guarantee and support for small and medium-sized venture enterprises and the operation of the insurance fund to restore economic vitality and induce social integration.
In particular, in the first half of this fiscal year, we inspected major social issues such as the management of national research and development, the audit of private education support, and the audit of foreign exchange banking, and proposed improvement measures and resolved many of the public’s doubts.
In addition, during the past year, we completed eight audits on matters requested by the National Assembly, including the year-end budget execution status, and reported the results to the National Assembly.
At the end of the year, the institute improved its organizational and operational systems to meet audit needs, including the introduction of a variable team system and a personnel matching system, and continued efforts to establish a “results-oriented organizational culture” by implementing a performance contract system.
In addition, the Evaluation Research Institute, which was launched in January last year, is striving to become the country’s leading audit and evaluation think tank by focusing on improving the public sector evaluation system and supporting advanced evaluation functions, and the Corporate Complaint Center, which was established in January last year, serves as a clearinghouse for corporate complaints.
We are also playing a leading role in INTOSAI, the world’s leading audit organization, and are becoming a “global auditor” by conducting the first cooperative audit in Asia on the issue of sulfur dioxide in China’s heartland.
However, we should not be satisfied and complacent with our current position, but should always consider what the needs of the times are for our organization and strive to see with the eyes of the people and hear with the ears of the people.
In light of this, I would like to make a few remarks on the audit work and operations for the second half of the year.
First, we should focus our audit capacity on stabilizing people’s lives and revitalizing the economy.
We have achieved the “miracle of the Han River” of going from a per capita national income of $20 to $100,000 in 20 years, despite the tragedy of division and ethnic conflict after liberation.
However, the country has been unable to break through the $100,000 per capita income barrier for more than a decade, and the social polarization and economic downturn that intensified during the recovery from the foreign exchange crisis have deepened the wrinkles in the middle class and widened the class divide.
This logic of confrontation, conflict, rift, and exclusion is likely to lead to the dispersion of national power and the country’s fall from the ranks of advanced nations in the era of globalization, liberalization, and multipolarization.
Faced with this difficult situation of people’s livelihood and economy, auditors should pay special attention to the growth of the national economy and the enhancement of national strength.
Second, we should actively support the successful completion of the national policy reform task by further enhancing systematic audits of major policies and projects.
This year marks the ○○th year of the ○○ government. The participating governments have been promoting government reform to realize a ‘transparent and well-working government’ and to make Korea a leading country in the world.
In addition to political and social reforms, such as the liquidation of authoritarianism, the government has made various efforts to improve economic vitality by building an economic center in Northeast Asia.
As you know, “government” has a term of office, but “policy implementation and innovation” does not. Regardless of the term of office of the participating government, the importance of auditing should be emphasized to ensure that key policies and projects have continuity and can be implemented without interruption.
Third, we must ensure the accountability of policy implementation and ensure that taxpayers’ money is not wasted by faithfully performing the basic task of auditing, which is accounting inspection.
As we have seen in the case of the sale of the Foreign Exchange Bank, the success of major policies is highly dependent on the active concern and sense of responsibility of policy makers.
Therefore, when reviewing policy implementation in the future, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate the reasons for the lack of success and to create a climate of accountability for the results.
In particular, for meandering games such as “Sea Tales,” which have recently become a social issue, we will make full use of the powers of the National Audit Office to thoroughly investigate the source of responsibility and resolve the public’s doubts.
In the second half of this fiscal year, we plan to focus our audit capabilities on the establishment of accounting systems by conducting audits on the overall budget execution and fund management.
In particular, for large-scale budgeted projects, we will make more efforts to monitor the feasibility of the project and fluctuations in the budget in stages from the beginning of the project to prevent waste of budget.
Fourth, we will establish strict self-discipline and maintain an attitude of constant self-improvement.
As evidenced by the recent water golf scandal and the verification process for high-ranking government officials, the public is demanding higher standards of morality and integrity from public officials.
Therefore, as the watchdogs of public service discipline, the staff of the National Audit Office must adopt a disciplined and clean lifestyle based on their sense of duty and sense of duty.
The audit environment we are facing is changing rapidly due to the mega-trends of globalization and information and communication revolution that transcend national borders.
As the work to be audited becomes more internationalized and specialized, audit techniques will need to evolve accordingly.
I would like to ask each of you to continue to strive to improve your audit capabilities so that you can “see the forest for the trees” and conduct authoritative audits.
Dear Employees!
We have grown into one of the world’s top economies with a per capita gross national income (GNI) of US$10,000 and a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$1.0 billion last year, and I believe this is the result of the hard work and dedication of our public servants, who, more than anyone else, have worked under difficult circumstances.
As ‘public servants among public servants’, let us take pride in the fact that every drop of sweat we shed is a precious foundation for national reform and economic development, and let us become the banner hand that will lead an advanced first-class country in the 21st century.
In conclusion, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations and encouragement to all the members of the outstanding departments and staffs of the National Assembly who have received honorable awards on this happy day, and to all the long-serving employees.
Regardless of whether you have been recognized or not, please remember that all of you are the mainstay of our organization and strive for even better results next year.
I wish you and your families good health and happiness. Thank you.

Example of greetings from the Auditor General at the opening ceremony

Dear Audit Institute Family! Today marks the 59th anniversary of the opening of our Audit Institute.
I would like to first congratulate you on this momentous occasion and express my sincere gratitude and respect to the senior auditors who have worked tirelessly to make the Audit Institute what it is today.
I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all of our employees, who have been quietly fulfilling their duties under difficult conditions.
As you know, the National Audit Office, which was founded in 1948 with the establishment of the government, has been faithfully fulfilling its historic mission as the nation’s premier audit organization for the past 59 years.
However, our society is now at a crucial juncture, when we must once again enhance our national strength and take a second leap forward in the midst of the global whirlwind of “change and disruption”.
The world is now entering the era of “Mega- Competition”, where there is unlimited competition in a single market, and the economic realignment among countries is rapidly progressing.
In addition to the rapid growth of the BRICs, the NEXT-11 countries, such as Vietnam and Turkey, which are considered to be post-BRICs, are also experiencing dynamic growth by attracting foreign investment and discovering manufacturing industries that fit their characteristics.
Neighboring Japan has been experiencing its best post-war boom since the end of World War II, thanks to the restructuring of the public sector and enterprises, and the UK’s Economist magazine has dubbed Japan’s downturn in the 90s as the “Stealthy Revolution” rather than the “Lost Decade.
In addition, countries in South America and Southeast Asia, which were once perceived as peripheral to the global economy, are creating new growth models based on their abundant resources and vision.
In particular, Dubai, which is emerging as the “hub of the Middle East,” is creating a “mirage-like dream into a real-life amusement park” in the desert winds.
Despite this global upheaval, we are facing difficulties in ‘social unity’ due to the accumulation of various unreasonable systems and practices in our society over the decades, as well as the conflicts over liberalization such as the Korea-US FTA, as well as the inter-class, inter-regional, and inter-generational tensions resulting from the short experience of democracy.
Under these circumstances, the National Audit Office is being asked to play a new role as a leading organization for innovation in addition to its role as the country’s highest audit organization.
In the meantime, I have spared no effort to fulfill my role as a key player in the reform of national government to become a “leading first-class nation in the 21st century” by improving the framework and systems created in the development era to meet global standards.
To this end, system audits, which closely diagnose structural problems in government policies and operations and propose concerted and fundamental improvement solutions, have been a consistent basis of our audits.
Over the past four years, based on these system audits, we have focused our efforts on eliminating inefficiencies and wastefulness that are scattered throughout society, and have achieved remarkable results, including the following
First, we have recommended the abolition of the group agreement system, which restricts competition among small and medium-sized enterprises, the unification and harmonization of the four impact assessment systems, which are burdening businesses with duplicative regulations, and the overhaul of the legal system to control the indiscriminate use of funds by self-governing organizations, and have urged the revision of 663 laws and regulations to improve outdated systems that cause waste and inefficiency.
Second, through intense audits of public institutions such as public enterprises, we urged the restructuring of public sectors that are operating as bloated organizations, such as the Korea Railroad Corporation, the Bank of Korea, the Korea Health Insurance Corporation, and KOTRA, and encouraged more than 60 mergers, closures, and personnel reductions, including the overhaul of subsidiaries and local organizations.
Third, it is estimated that by eliminating waste and inefficiency factors in the public sector, such as proposing a new paradigm of “creating a profitable model” for the management of state-owned assets, which had been passively maintained and repaired, the government has achieved annual budget savings of more than KRW 2.3 trillion and increased fiscal revenue.
Fourth, while promoting audits on sensitive social issues such as local airports, private education, self-governing organizations, and foreign exchange banking, we have maintained our independence and political neutrality through ‘sanctuary-free audits’ despite strong opposition from local residents and interest groups, and have fulfilled our role as a mediator to resolve public doubts and reconcile social tensions.
I believe that system auditing has now been firmly established as a “revolutionary audit paradigm” that will lead us through the age of limitless opportunities thanks to your “sweat and passion.
In addition to the above-mentioned system audit achievements, the Center for Business Complaints, which was established in February 20, has been evaluated as establishing an “open audit office image” by actively working to resolve problems in business activities, such as improving related systems to prevent unjustified denials and delays in processing complaints.
In addition, the Evaluation Research Institute, which was established in March 20, 2020 to support the “results-oriented operation of national government and the establishment of a national evaluation infrastructure,” which has been emphasized by the participating governments, is becoming a leading think-tank specializing in audit and evaluation.
In addition, as the Chair of the International Conference of State Auditors and Inspectors General (INTOSAI), the Institute is leading the development of a Strategic Plan that outlines INTOSAI’s long-term vision and reforms for the 21st century,
In January 20, we were honored to be elected to the Board of Directors with the highest number of votes at the Asian Conference of State Audit Institutions (ASOSAI), and recently, we have been able to transfer our system audit techniques to Dominica and Vietnam, showing that our position in the international community is higher than ever.
Employees!
However, when we look back at our reality, we realize that we need more development and effort than ever before, rather than resting on our laurels and being satisfied with our past achievements and current position.
We have achieved remarkable economic development over the past ○ years thanks to the efforts of the government and the sacrificial spirit of the people, especially the efforts of the public sector armed with a sense of duty, but recently we are facing a “sandwich structure” in which we are caught between the barriers of advanced technology such as Japan and the catch-up of Southeast Asia and China,
In addition, although it is expected to enter the “era of $100,000 per capita income” in 20 years after achieving $100,000 per capita income in 20 years, the country’s GDP ranking has continued to decline, ranking ○th in 20 years, ○th in 20 years, and ○th in the world last year.
On the other hand, this year is the year of the presidential election, and there is a risk that political divisions and confrontations will be expressed ahead of the full-scale presidential election, and as seen in the labor-management confrontation over the “non-regular worker issue,” we are going through a period of trial and error, where the logic of “rift and exclusion” is being played out between generations, classes, wealth, and groups.
In this challenging environment, I would like to make a few immediate remarks centered on my impressions as Auditor General as I reflect on the past year and the way forward for the Office of the Inspector General.
First, the crisis we are facing is caused by the fact that, as Alvin Toffler emphasized in his book, The Future of Wealth, businesses are changing at 100 mph while governments, bureaucracies, policies and legal systems are moving at a tortoise’s pace of less than 30 mph.
In this sense, I urge you to continue to inherit and develop the system audit that was introduced to improve outdated practices and systems created in the development era into a solid audit system.
I would also like to emphasize that thoroughly monitoring the follow-up of audit results is as important as adding new findings, so that the implementation of system audit recommendations, government reform tasks, etc. can be prioritized so that the public can experience the effectiveness of government policies.
In this way, I am confident that the moment our system audit becomes mature and highly specialized, Korea will surely join the ranks of “leading countries.
Secondly, in the period of finalizing the reform work of the participating governments, we should focus our audit capabilities on supporting the uninterrupted promotion of priority policies and projects.
Based on our experience in monitoring and inspecting major policies and projects, we should focus our audit capabilities on issues that require immediate attention in the second half of the year, and encourage the normal implementation of mid- and long-term projects such as high energy efficiency and energy countermeasures to lay the foundation for the next government to proceed without interruption.
As you are well aware, there is a term of office for the government, but there should be no term of office for policies and reforms.
In particular, we should focus on ensuring that major policies and projects that are directly related to national and social development in the 21st century, such as signing free trade agreements, creating jobs, and strengthening national competitiveness through regulatory reform, have continuity and are promoted without interruption regardless of the tenure of the participating governments.
We must continue to develop the role of the “conciliator” to reconcile conflicts and minimize confusion so that these issues can be pursued in a unified and sustainable manner with the unity of the people.
Third, as we enter the second half of this year’s election season, we will need to strengthen our monitoring activities to ensure strict public office discipline, as we expect political queueing, cheating, and complacency.
All public officials should fulfill their duties as an observer and a neutral party, and not “go left or right” depending on the political situation.
In particular, it is necessary to prevent unprofessional public officials and irrational public officials who take advantage of the period of political transition from entering public life.
Fourth, we must gather the wisdom of all employees to develop a performance-oriented organizational culture that will be established at an early stage, such as by implementing the operation of the Unified Performance Evaluation System, which the National Audit Office introduced to lead the transformation of the public service and consolidate its own transformation.
Dear Employees!
Jack Welch, the former chairman of GE, the world’s largest consumer electronics company, which was named the world’s most admired company by Fortune magazine for 20 years, once said, “If there is one trait that all winners have that differentiates them from everyone else, it is passion. “There is no task in this world that is too small to be worth sweating for, and no dream too big to hope to realize.
I believe that if we, the employees of the Institute of Audit, set militant goals and pour out our enthusiasm, we can help our society to develop further and move towards a place full of hope.
Employees!
I have just over two months and an hour left in my role as Auditor General. I promise that I will do my best to work with you, the main people of the National Audit Office, to make the remaining period of my tenure a successful one.
I urge all of you to never forget your sense of commitment and responsibility as employees of the Supreme Audit Organization, and to strive for change and self-improvement with enthusiasm and persistence.
Let’s build an auditor image that combines professionalism with practicality, sound judgment, and unwavering will and drive.
But on the other hand, we must not forget the attitude of a “universal educated person” at the same time as we aim for the above-mentioned “auditor image.” When we lose sight of the “universal educated person” in ourselves, we may fall into self-righteousness, and we may find ourselves clinging to a single tree without seeing the forest.
We must constantly change in order to uphold what we are supposed to uphold. I am confident that we will make progress if we strive to envision ourselves as auditors and educators.
When I came to the office of the Auditor General, I instilled in myself the belief that if the Auditor General changes, the public service changes, and if the public service changes, our society changes.
Looking back, I can say with great joy and satisfaction that there have been many moments when this belief has been realized through the innovation of the National Audit Office and the system audits based on it, and I would like to share this with all of you.
Dear Audit Institute family!
In closing, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the Outstanding Division, the staff, and the long-serving employees who have been honored on this joyous occasion.
On the occasion of the 59th anniversary of the opening of the National Audit Office today, I would like to once again congratulate you for your hard work and dedication, and wish you and your families all the best.
Thank you.