Increasing Disclosure of Meeting Minutes (KR0064)

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Enhance transparency: Establishing accountable and transparent administration by thoroughly documenting the decision-making process of public institutions.

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? The standards of recording meeting minutes need to be reinforced so that people can see the content actually discussed in the decision-making process of public institutions. Issues have been raised regarding difficulties in verifying the decision-making process with the current minute format under the Public Records Management Act* (containing the name of the meeting, host institution, date, time and place, list of attendants and those sitting in an associate capacity, order of proceedings, agenda items, gist of comments made at the meeting, matters resolved and details of the decision made by voting).

LEGAL GROUND Article 17 (2) of the PUBLIC RECORDS MANAGEMENT ACT A public institution shall take minutes, stenographic records, or sound recordings of important meetings, as prescribed by Presidential Decree. Article 18 (2) of the ENFORCEMENT DECREE OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS MANAGEMENT ACT The meeting minutes shall contain the matters concerning the name of the meeting, host institution, date, time and place, list of attendants and those sitting in an associate capacity, order of proceedings, agenda items, gist of comments made at the meeting, matters resolved and details of the decision made by voting, and such meeting minutes shall be created or registered, and managed through an electronic records creation system.

What is the commitment? The purpose of this commitment is to strengthen minute creation and management for meetings for which minutes are deemed necessary, as designated in each subparagraph of Article 18 (1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Public Records Management Act in order to secure transparency in the decision-making process of public institutions. To this end, the status of public institution meetings, which is the foundation of minute creation and management, should be examined, determined for each type, analyzed, and serve as a basis for reinforcing minute recording standards.

How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? The detailed implementation methods are as follows: 1) Meetings of different organizations for which minutes are deemed necessary as specified in each subparagraph of Article 18 (1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Public Records Management Act, will be thoroughly investigated to lay the foundation for the seamless creation and management of meeting minutes. 2) Among the inspected meetings, select key meetings for each type of public institution such as central administrative agencies, local governments and education offices, collect meeting minutes and analyze whether the minutes include required elements and serve the intended purpose. 3) Come up with improvement measures to strengthen meeting minute creation and management such as renewed guidelines based on the analysis of the collected minute examples.

Exchange and Peer Learning N/A

Additional Information N/A

Milestone Activity with a Verifiable Deliverable Start Date End Date Investigate the status of meetings for which minutes are deemed necessary, examine and analyze minute examples (Subjects: central government ministries, local governments and education offices) September 2020 December 2020 Investigate the status of meetings for which minutes are deemed necessary (Subjects: universities, public enterprises supervised by National Archives of Korea, military agencies) January 2021 July 2021 Strengthen minute recording standards (review and improve relevant guidelines (manuals)) August 2021 December 2021

Action Plan Review

Commitment 14. Increase the disclosure of meeting minutes

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Unclear

Results Report

Commitment 14. Increase the disclosure of meeting minutes

This commitment aimed to strengthen the transparency of public institutions’ meeting minutes, which are governed by the Public Records Management Act. [87] To this end, the National Archives of Korea and the Ministry of the Interior and Security (MOIS) conducted a baseline survey to assess current practices of meeting documentation by public institutions (comprising 601 central administrative agencies, local governments, and education offices as well as 98 national universities, direct management public institutions, and military institutions). Based on the survey findings, the government supplemented the Guidelines for Public Records Management in December 2021. The Ministry of Interior and Safety reported that this expanded the list of meetings subject to the Public Records Management Act standards for preparing minutes. However, it did not provide specifics on the scope of changes undertaken. As such, it is not possible to assess if the revision represents a substantive increase in information disclosure requirements. [88] Such records can serve as a valuable tool to hold government accountable, but can be made more useful to the public if they are widely-documented and well-curated i.e., key results extracted and reported as evidence of policy implementation.