고위공직자 인사청문회 제도 개선방안 -사전 인사검증 중심으로-

Abstract

Personnel Hearing serves as a gateway for appointing high-level officials, and through the these hearings, the National Assembly evaluates the ethics and qualifications of the nominees, whom been nominated by the President. While the power of appointment for officials by the President and the approval of the National Assembly have been stipulated since the enactment of the Constitution, the Personnel Hearing System was first regulated in the National Assembly Act in February 2000, and the Personnel Hearing Act was enacted in June of the same year. However, this Personnel Hearing System has consistently raised doubts about its effectiveness since its introduction and has been distorted into a battleground for political fights between the ruling party and the opposition, focusing more on personal attacks rather than verifying the policy capabilities of the nominees. Among the countries that hold personnel hearings, the United States is the first country to establish the Personnel Hearing System in Constitution and adopted Montesquieu's model of separation of powers, aiming to achieve the "balance by checking" among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. After declaring independence from Britain on July 4, 1776, the United States, in order to prevent the President from exercising power like a king as in the colonial era, devised various measures to reduce the authority of the executive branch and strengthen the power of the legislative branch. The Personnel Hearing requires the President to nominate candidates and obtain consent from the Senate from the perspective of "check and balance." The distinctive feature of the US Personnel Hearing is that it is open to the public from the nomination stage, with all procedures and criteria being made public and candidates are thoroughly verified. In order to ensure the proper operation of Personnel Hearing in Korea, this study examines the current system, and tries to derive measures to improve especially the current nomination stage through comparative analysis with the United States. As a result to enhance the effectiveness of the Personnel Hearing, firstly, this study proposes to divide the stages of the Personnel Hearing into nomination and confirmation stage. This study proposes to strictly verify the ethics of the nominees in the nomination stage and verify their expertise and job suitability in the confirmation stage. Secondly, the legislation of the procedures and criteria for nomination stage is proposed. Thirdly, the possibility of sharing the results of nomination stage is proposed. Fourthly, this study proposes to establish a system where the nomination stage is overseen by the Presidential Secretariat. Lastly, as the final procedure of the nomination stage, this study proposes to have a hearing from the interested parties and the public regarding the nominees.