Personnel affairs corruption rife at provincial entities: report

Personnel affairs corruption rife at provincial entities: report. June. 07, 2012 01:16. will71@donga.com.

Personnel affairs at organizations funded by provincial and municipal governments are rife with budgetary waste and corruption, the Commission on People’s Rights and Interests said Wednesday.

One entity affiliated with a municipal government in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, posted a job opening only on its homepage in January to hire the son of a manager at the same organization.

Another organization affiliated with a municipal government in Gangwon Province was led by a university professor who doubled as chairman of its personnel affairs committee. Among 14 employees hired from 2009 through this year, nine were graduates from the professor’s university.

A public agency under the Incheon city government had just 49 employees and its leader was not entitled to a government car. Despite this, the agency head was found to be using a 3.6-liter government car and spending more than 2.5 million won (2,120 U.S. dollars) on rental fees and gas per year.

As of late April, a combined 492 organizations, including provincial medical centers, industrial development institutes and cultural and scholarship foundations, were supported by provincial and municipal governments. Yet 43 percent of these organizations had no more than 10 employees, making it impossible for them to conduct their tasks effectively, the commission said.

After the authority to approve the establishment of state-supported organizations was transferred from the Public Administration and Security Ministry to provincial and municipal governments in 1999, the number of government-affiliated organizations grew 3.5 times over 13 years from 141 in 1999. In particular, 109 organizations were established from 2008 to 2009 in the run-up to the 2010 local elections.

The combined budget for these organizations was almost 6 trillion won (5.1 billion dollars) per year. Of the amount, 1.38 trillion won (1.17 billion dollars) came from provincial and municipal governments.

According to the government watchdog’s survey of 17 such organizations conducted from February to April, however, provincial and municipal governments have little knowledge of public organizations that they have to supervise.

Against this backdrop, ethical standards at provincial and municipal government-supported organizations were found to have severely declined. The institutions also independently devised regulations to sign illegal private contracts, paid a variety of allowances in a reckless manner, and embezzled operating expenses.

The head of a public organization in South Jeolla Province was found to have used 75 million won (63,500 dollars) in operating expenses on weekends for two years in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Another entity with just 81 employees spent 93.5 million won (79,200 dollars) on labor for organizational diagnosis conducted over 15 days.

An organization in South Gyeongsang Province created a regulation banning relevant employees from releasing details of operating expenses "under any circumstance."

To tackle rampant corruption at such government-supported organizations, the commission urged the Public Administration Ministry to lead management assessment of such institutions, impose sanctions on those that perform poorly, and merge organizations that have overlapping functions.

In addition, all organizations under provincial and municipal governments must now practice hiring through competition.