Reasons for Proposal
Certain central administrative agencies responsible for frontline administration and many local governments operate civil petition compensation systems for administrative errors and processing delays, etc., based on the Public Service Charter established in the form of an ordinance, a rule, or a directive.
However, since the systematic compensation criteria and procedures of these civil petition compensation systems are so different among administrative agencies that civil petitioners, etc., may be confused. Critics have pointed out that the criteria and methods of compensation, along with legal grounds thereof, should be clarified. In addition, it is also necessary to address the problem that public officials may well be passive about utilizing the system for themselves because the nature of civil petition compensation systems has to do with the mistakes of public officials.
The Amendment aims to provide the legal grounds for civil petition compensation systems and to have the head of an administrative agency decide whether he/she compensates for and the amount of compensation through deliberation by the Deliberative Committee on Petition Compensation; in addition, to ensure the effectiveness of the civil petition compensation system and to facilitate the use of the system by stipulating that public officials etc., should not be treated disadvantageously for such compensation except for the inconvenience or loss of civil petitioners due to intentional or gross negligence (Article 35-2 and Article 35-3 newly inserted).
Major Provisions
The head of an administrative agency may compensate civil petitioners for the inconvenience or the time or economic loss by the public officials and employees of the agency due to any of the following cases in the course of processing civil petitions. (Article 35-2 (1))
1. Where a civil petition is not addressed within the processing period stipulated by the related laws or the processing period stipulated by the administrative agency without justifiable reason.
2. Where various official books and documents are recorded in error.
3. Where a civil petitioner has visited an administrative agency two or more times for the same purpose or failed to effectively achieve the purpose of his/her petition due to an error or negligence by the agency.
4. In addition, where the handling of a petition is so unsatisfactory that it causes inconvenience or loss to the civil petitioner.
