South Korean Politics and Elections

Number of Public Servants Swells by 66,000

Korea Times, February 8, 2008

The manpower of the government has grown by 66,756 since the launch of President Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2003.

The number of public servants at the central government increased to 951,920 on Nov. 20 last year from 885,164 as of Feb. 24, 2003, one day before Roh was sworn in, according to a report filed by the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs with the National Assembly’s committee on government administration and home affairs Friday.

By agencies, the quota for the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development increased by 29,553, the largest number, followed by the National Police Agency with 4,670, the National Tax Service with 3,222, the Ministry of Information and Communication with 3,025, the Labor Ministry with 2,999 and the Justice Ministry with 2,570.

The secretarial office of President Roh has grown by 25 percent from 405 before Roh’s administration inauguration to 531.

There are no government agencies whose quota has decreased.

”President Roh has been repeatedly criticized for having made the government organization bigger and the number of officials greater since his inauguration,” a lawmaker of the Grand National Party, adding that it is urgently needed to restructure the government organization to make it efficient.

Parties Differ Over Civil Servants' Term

Korea Times, December 16, 2007

By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

The pro-government and main opposition parties expressed opposing views regarding an agreement over the extension of retirement age of low-ranking government officials.

The agreement was made on Friday between the government and the Korean Government Employees' Union (KGEU).

The decision faced backlash among the public as the retirement age extension is seen as a measure to protect the vested interest of government officials, often called the "iron rice bowl."

The term of the iron rice bowl was coined to refer to the guaranteed lifetime employment of government employees, indicating self-serving government bureaucracy.

The United New Democratic Party (UNDP) and minor parties welcomed the agreement.

UNDP spokesman Choi Jae-sung said that the agreement is positive because there is a discrepancy in retirement age between high-ranking and low-ranking government officials and this was a policy problem.

Current retirement age of low-ranking government employees is 57, while that of high-ranking officials is 60.

``The extension of retirement age in the public sector will have an impact on the private sector, and this move is very positive because it will help secure jobs for workers in an era of aging society,'' Rep. Choi commented.

The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) said the party lawmakers will closely look at the details of the bill and approve it if the bill is handed over to the parliament.

The main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), however, said the retirement age issue should be discussed in the next government along with other related issues such as the government structure and the size of government employees.

``It was inappropriate for the outgoing government to agree with the labor union to extend the retirement age,'' party spokeswoman Na Kyung-won said.

Rep. Na said political consideration is behind the pro-government party's commitment as the presidential election is three days away.

Clarifying that it is his personal opinion, GNP chief policymaker Rep. Lee Han-koo said the extension of retirement age is inappropriate because the outgoing government was not supposed to make a commitment of that kind of issue entailing budget.

The government and the KGEU agreed on the extension of current retirement age but did not clarify the age ceiling.

The retirement age will be effective only after the National Assembly approved the relevant bill.

Political observers said the bill is not likely to be discussed during this year's assembly session as the lawmakers would feel pressed in making clear their stance on the bill before Wednesday's election.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr

Bribery Accounts for 25% of Public Officials’ Corruption

Korea Times, December 4, 2007

By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter

Taking bribes ranked second among the types of corruption committed by civil servants, accounting for 24.7 percent of the total, over the past five years.

The presidential Korea Independent Committee Against Corruption (KICAC) made public Tuesday major corruption examples of civil servants between January 2002 and June 2007, based on 446 cases handed over to investigative agencies.

The anti-corruption watchdog said one out of every four, or 110 of the 446 informants, accused public officials of receiving kickbacks.

The most frequent corruption type was budget overspending, including wasting taxpayers' money, which constituted 45.5 percent. Others include inappropriate practices at work, 22.2 percent, and neglect of duties, 4 percent.

The committee said more than half of the cases were reported to the police (27.6 percent) or prosecution (25.6 percent).

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) looked into 22 percent of the corruption allegations and central ministries took care of 19.5 percent. Regional governments examined 5 percent.

By informants' occupation, 51.2 percent were self-employed or salaried people, followed by civil servants at 25.1 percent.

``It is necessary to promote more active internal complaint-filing by civil servants,'' the commission said in a statement.

Corruption was most rampant in Seoul, accounting for 31.5 percent of all cases; followed by Gyeonggi Province, 16.9 percent; and Busan, 6.1 percent.

Since it was launched on Jan. 25, 2002, the KICAC has supervised nationwide anti-corruption campaigns pursuant to the Anticorruption Act of Korea enacted on July 24, 2001.

Anti-corruption has become a top national agenda item since former President Kim Dae-jung took office in 1998 in the midst of the Asian financial crisis.

The public sector's transparency score has inched up in the past year, but transparency levels as perceived by Koreans and foreigners are still not satisfactory in spite of continuous, comprehensive government reform.

The government aims to rank within the 30 most transparent countries by 2010 in the annual worldwide evaluation conducted by Transparency International (TI). TI is an international nongovernmental organization committed to fighting corruption.

kys@koreatimes.co.kr

Roh to Recruit 582 More Public Servants

Korea Times, November 20, 2007

By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

Cabinet ministers Tuesday approved the reorganization of 20 government ministries and agencies and the hiring of 582 civil servants. The approval was made in a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

Since his inauguration in early 2003, Roh has been under fire for increasing the number of civil servants.

The reorganization includes 99 new posts at the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs who will take care of the civil servants union, record presidential activities and inspect the assets of public servants among other duties.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will get 24 more quarantine inspectors; the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy will get eight extra people to deal with natural resources overseas; and the Ministry of Information and Communication will get 86 for postal services in newly developed cities and 29 for a new government computer network center in Gwangju.

Seven officials will be added to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to support foreign residents married to Koreans; 98 will be hired at a new office of human rights for victims at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office; 152 new policemen will be stationed in Incheon and Jeju Island; and 10 new officials will be allocated to the Small and Medium Business Administration.

The quality control department of the Public Procurement Office will become an independent government organization.

The Cabinet meeting also approved plans to allot 56 officials to a new office dealing with surveys at the National Statistical Office while cutting 56 junior-level personnel at its branch offices in the provinces.

The reform and personnel department of the Ombudsman of Korea will be divided into finance and reform departments with four added officials, and the Government Youth Commission will hire five more people to screen music CDs.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries will get 31 more officials to look after maritime statistics but will lose three officials in charge of facilities management at the Busan and Incheon ports.

``The increase in public servants will be the last during the administration of President Roh Moo-hyun,'' Kim Chang-ho, the minister of the Government Information Agency said. ``The increase is focused on strengthening services for the nation to meet social changes in information, the police force, and patent management.''

yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr