CIO Says New Serious Crime Investigation Agency Should Include Officials of Grade 3 and Above Among Investigation Targets

[Financial News] The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) has submitted to the Office for Government Policy Coordination its opinion on revising the CIO Act, calling for officials of grade 3 and above at the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, which is set to be launched in October, to be included in the CIO's investigation targets.
At a regular press briefing held on the morning of the 28th at the Government Complex Gwacheon in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, a CIO official said, "Under the current CIO Act, the scope of high-ranking officials includes grade 3 and above officials at the Board of Audit and Inspection, the National Tax Service, and the Korea Fair Trade Commission, and high-ranking officials at the Serious Crime Investigation Agency should also be subject to investigation," adding, "Since the Serious Crime Investigation Agency is a newly created organization, there are no investigation rules for its officials."
He added that the office had also submitted its views on the Public Prosecution Office prosecutors' authority to request supplementary investigations to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly.
The CIO official said, "It does not fit the system for a Public Prosecution Office prosecutor to request supplementary investigations from a CIO prosecutor," and added, "Because 'supplementary investigation request' is a term used between prosecutors and judicial police officers, we submitted an opinion to create a new procedure called 'additional investigation request,' through which the Public Prosecution Office and CIO prosecutors would consult when filing charges."
Specifically, if the Public Prosecution Office prosecutor determines that additional investigation is needed while pursuing charges in a case over which the CIO does not have the right to indict, the prosecutor would request further investigation from a CIO prosecutor and send related documents and evidence so follow-up action can be taken.
He also said that the office submitted an opinion that the status of CIO investigators should be revised to be equivalent to that of Serious Crimes Investigation Agency investigators. At present, CIO investigators are defined as equivalent to prosecutorial civil servants, but the idea is to reflect in law the shift of investigative duties to the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency under the separation of investigation and prosecution.
Meanwhile, a CIO official said the office had not recently conducted a separate summons investigation in connection with the alleged 'drinking entertainment' scandal involving presiding judge Ji Gui-yeon.


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