[2026 National Assembly Audit] "Over 2,000 e-People petitions unresolved for more than 100 days"

Most long-pending petitions are at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

Cases of petitions being transferred to other agencies continue to increase

ACRC: "Lead agencies to be designated for long-stalled petitions"

More than 2,000 petitions filed on e-People had remained unresolved even after 100 days had passed.

Hong Youngcheol, head of the Mobile People's Petition Service Division at the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, explains plans for operating the service at the commission's offices in Government Complex Sejong. Yonhap News.

According to data submitted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission to Rep. Park Seong-hoon of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, a total of 6,221 e-People petitions took more than 100 days to process during the five years from 2022 through August 2026.

By agency, the Ministry of Employment and Labor had the most long-pending petitions, with 2,002 (32.2%). It was followed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare with 1,316 (21.2%), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport with 427 (6.9%), Seodaemun-gu in Seoul with 204 (3.3%), and Ulju-gun in Ulsan with 196 (3.2%).

As of the end of August 2026, 2,200 petitions had remained unresolved for more than 100 days after being filed. Of these, 311 had gone unresolved for more than a year, 211 for more than two years, and 27 had been left unresolved for more than three years.

The agency with the most petitions unresolved for more than 100 days was the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, with 562. It was followed by Jongno-gu in Seoul with 366, Gangnam-gu Urban Management Corporation with 314, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare with 98.

Cases of petitions being transferred to other agencies are also increasing. The number of e-People petitions transferred to other agencies 10 or more times rose from 103 in 2022 to 120 in 2023, 189 in 2024, and 252 in 2025. As of August 2026, the figure stood at 234. The number of petitions transferred five or more times increased from 4,833 in 2022 to 7,911 in 2025, reaching 6,744 through August 2026.

Rep. Park said, “To prevent e-People from becoming a ‘People’s Waiting Portal’ or a ‘petition-shuffling system,’ the causes of long-pending cases and repeated transfers must be thoroughly reviewed, and the agencies responsible must be clearly identified.”

In response, the commission said, “For petitions that have been stalled for an extended period, we will designate a lead agency with overall responsibility and appoint an officer in charge of conflict mediation within the agency as the person primarily responsible. We will ensure that the officer manages each petition from consultations with relevant agencies through to the final response.” It added, “Even if a petition cannot be resolved, we will manage it through to closure, clearly explaining the reasons or possible alternatives to the petitioner.”

The commission added, “To prevent agencies from passing petitions back and forth, we will pursue system changes to limit the number of times a petition can be transferred. We will also increase deductions in evaluations of petition services to strengthen accountability.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.