In an effort to resolve corruption and civil conflicts that plagued refurbishment work for 40 years, Seoul government officials started to work on public refurbishment work based on the “Seoul Residential Environment Improvment Policy Plan” released on July 1, 2009.

Suggested by the consultation committee consisting of refurbishment professionals, the plan became concrete with Seoul officials

In April 2008, Seoul set up a consultation committee consisting of professionals from each field to analyze and resolve problems of old refurbishment works. After about a year’s study, the committee offered the results and recommendations, based on which Seoul made the plans concrete.

Setting up civil empathy for public management including legislation and website for information disclosure

Upon announcing the “Seoul Residential Environment Improvment Policy Plan” on July 1, 2009, many hearings and briefing sessions were held, and work was completed including introductory business, information disclosure system build-up, early shared cost estimate programs and preparing standards for public management.The District office mayor announced support for setting up the committee for Seongsu Strategic Refurbishment Areas on July 1, 2009, which was completed as of October 27^thof2009withactivecivilsupport.Public hearings in 5 areas in August 2009, civil briefings, and staff training around the area throughout 2010 helped with the understanding of the system.

On January 14, 2010, the information disclosure management system for guaranteeing civil rights (Clean-up system for refurbishment) was opened to disclose business processes transparently, and on April 15, 2010, a revised legislative bill was announced as the legal basis, while the revision and standards were prepared for full implementation. A shared expense estimate program has been in operation from June 1, 2011 after the introductory process.

Under this system, a ward office chief provides administrative and financial support to enhance transparency and efficiency in urban refurbishment projects.

Major roles of the public manager

 -To assist with the organization of the project host.

 -To assist with the election of residents’ representatives

 -To assist with the selection of a method of choosing the implementing agency

 -To assist in the disclosure of information and disclosure of the amount of expenses residents will be requires     to pay

Trial Strategy

The public management system was first drafted as of July 1, 2009 as the “Seoul Residential Environment Improvement Plan”. Its purpose was to protect the rights of all civil customers through transparency and improved efficiency, and the plan was put into action based on three strategies in spite of resistance from committee members and participating companies.

First, 25 self-ruling areas have been separated into 5 areas and public hearings, and briefing sessions and diverse types of discussions were held in each area to induce the empathy of civilians and public officials in those areas.

Second, a total of 12 visits were made to the national assembly and major authorities after legislation on July 13, 2009 for a stable process. Such efforts including individual meetings with congressmen resulted in a revision of the law as of April 15, 2010. The regulations were also finally revised as of July 15, 2010, despite strong resistance from construction companies, and were enacted from the following day.

Third, a transparent and shortened process by the District office mayor’s setting-up committee even before legislation started won civil consent that helped with overcoming the strong resistance from construction companies.

Obstacles And Overcome Method

Association members and construction companies attempted to hinder the implementation citing that too much intervention from public sectors shall interfere with civil autonomy. Officials who had to carry out public management felt overwhelmed with increased work and were passive at joining trainings and submitting materials for setting up standards. But widespread support from civil sectors, completion of legislation and successes of introductory works led the opposing parties to understand the true meaning of protecting civil rights and interests, resulting in their affirmative acknowledgement on the system.
 

Used Resources

Funding for operating costs and human resources for each step is required for avoiding the illegal intervention of interested companies so that participating companies can work on their own and manage the process themselves.For this purpose, Seoul and other district governments have shared the costs for a committee set up, and its funding comes from Seoul’s own foundation.As of September 1^st, Seoul has newly opened the department of public management with 14 members for legislation an dimplementation. Each district has also started a public management team with 3~5 members for work support, process review such as company selection, and information disclosure management.

In particular, estimating the shared cost at the early phases and determining feasibility dramatically increased the forecast for residence areas for people. The information disclosure system allowed any civilian to find out transparent information on the refurbishment works to increase trustworthiness. The public sector reviews whole processes in advance for more transparency and efficiency and to reduce cost and delays from lawsuits. In the end, the perception that civilians are the true subjects in the process has led to active participation such as offering opinions.
 

The implementation of the public management system has united civilians, parties of interest and the government, and made civilians take part more actively with the idea that they are the true owners, who can maximize the effects of the refurbishing works.

Demand for expansion of the public role in refurbishment is steadily increasing. Standards for support are in accordance with the regulations of local governments so that each area can operate the system based on their own situations. Also, the acknowledgement is spreading that that the system is not for protecting specific people’s rights, but for all members of the community and for improving transparency and efficiency to maximize sustainability. 
 

Seoul was the only government when the public management system was first put into effect on July 16, 2010, according to the revised law on April 15, 2010, and now other governments including Gyeonggi-do, Incheon, Busan, Daegu, Ulsanan and Gyeongsangnam-do are considering the implementation of similar systems. Gyeonggi-do has recently (October 2011) revised its regulations for implementation.