공수처 운영상의 문제점과 개선 방향

On December 30, 2019, after fierce debate between the ruling and opposition parties, the Corruption Investigation Office (hereinafter “CIO”) Act passed the National Assembly, and on January 21, 2021, the CIO was launched with the appointment of the first Director, and the fourth anniversary is just around the corner. There has been criticism that the CIO has not achieved much and is a biased and inefficient organization. Against this backdrop, it is important to clarify the purpose of the CIO’s establishment, since the CIO is also an institution introduced as a means to contribute to a specific purpose. The first(inaugural) director of the CIO completed his 3 year tenure on January 20, 2024. Considering the historical and chronological grounds for the establishment of the CIO, the logical grounds, and the provisions of Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the CIO Act, the identity of the the CIO is an anti-corruption law enforcement agency, and accordingly the CIO is in charge of investigating high-ranking government officers’corruption crimes, etc., so the primary purpose of the CIO should be to conduct a thorough investigation and prosecution of cases, related to those in power in the strict sense of the word. The operational problems of the CIO were pointed out as jurisdictional issues such as the discrepancy between the investigative and prosecutorial jurisdictions, the job security issue of the CIO prosecutors, and the proper size of the CIO. The directions or the methods for the improvement of the CIO operation were presented by dividing them into those that need to be realized through the revisions of the relevant statutes and those that can be implemented without those revisions.