The purpose of this study is to understand the roles of local governments under the new “Framework Act on Food Safety” and to suggest the direction to reform the agricultural food safety system for efficient management of agri-food safety at the national level.
According to the “Framework Act on Food Safety,” the local governments shall be jointly responsible for food safety administration with the central government. However, roles and authorities necessary for local governments to perform the tasks are not explicitly set out in the Framework Act. Because of this, to deal with the tasks of this nature, the local governments should rely on other related laws as they have done prior to the enactment of the Framework Act.
Local governments are similar to central governments in handling food safety activities by running health and hygiene department and agriculture department separately. Local governments are normally handling local affairs while performing the tasks given by the central government. For the task of investigating into safety status and conducting supervision and monitoring, to some degree, the activity overlaps with that of the central government. This has been criticized as the factor of causing inefficiency and weakening the will of the local government to perform actively. Also local governments are given the authority to approve and permit on top of the authority to safety investigation, supervision and monitoring. However, local governments find it difficult to properly serve the function due to the lack of a dedicated team or resources. The workload of local governments tend to be heavier under the polarized structure of running two food safety management-related departments.
A survey was conducted against consumers and the central or local government public officials responsible for food safety in order to learn their views. Related officials believed that despite the concern of leniency toward local violations and the human resources issue, the fulfillment of assigned activities at field and the policy execution reflective of local situation require extended roles and authorities of local governments. In relation to work sharing, the respondents thought that the central government needs to establish policies and institutions, while local governments handle monitoring/supervision and grant permits/approvals. Notwithstanding, how to divide and allocate work at the detailed level, difference was found among the respondents by subject matter.
Reforming the current food safety management system shall be pursued basically considering 1) efficient operation of the national food safety management system, 2) restored consumer confidence and secured safety. To modify the current food safety management system, first, the roles of central and local governments should be clearly defined. To this end, national food safety policy setup should be designed and the risk assessment and criteria setting should be conducted. Also, the issues affecting large areas beyond the power of a single local government, the central government shall play the main role. On the other hand, local governments could take up more practical-level execution activities such as granting permits/approvals and conducting supervision/monitoring. Based on the clear definition of roles and responsibilities, it is desired over the loan haul to come up with a comprehensive food safety management system. Second, the reforming of the current food safety management system based on the clear definition of local governments will be effective only when local governments are capable enough to support the food safety management activities. Therefore, as a long-term solution of the insufficient resources, the central government could increase the number of staffs dedicated to local government's food safety administration on the gradual basis. In a short term, independently from the central government's dual management structure of food safety, the local governments' current food safety administration system that is divided into the hygiene department and agricultural department could be reformed by establishing a food safety dedicated unit. More desirably, after alleviating the capacity gap among local governments and then improving their overall capability, expanded roles and authorities could be granted to local governments. Third, under the “Framework Act on Food Safety,” local governments are mandated to establish and execute their food safety management plans designed based on the framework food safety management plan prepared by the central government. However, a case study has found that local governments didn’t take any significant actions or pay special attention to this requirement. Also the food safety is not managed in a systematic manner under a long-term comprehensive plan. Therefore, local governments should be encouraged to set out food safety control plans and guidelines from a long-term perspective. Fourth, unlike the past, agricultural produce is distributed across the nation, so that the coordination structure between local governments will facilitate efficient work performance. However, if the expansion of local government's roles are strived for a long time, local governments may tend to resolve issues solely and independently, weakening the coordination structure among them. In this regard, we need to consider establishing a body for mutual discussions where local governments regularly meet and talk about regional food safety issues. Fifth, compared to central government agencies, local governments have a more room for exercising leniency toward local cases in the course of their work performance. If the expansion of local government roles is considered on top of preparing a work adjustment structure, a supervisory system is also necessary to monitor the safety management performance of local governments.