The Ultimate Insider Story from the Ministry of Economy and Finance... Telling Officers to "Bring a Bidet" on Overseas Business Trips

Former Official Shin Jae-min Publishes Book "Why Doesn't the World Change Even When the Regime Changes?"
"Considering Compensation to Lone Star from Global Surplus Funds... Then Deputy Prime Minister Ordered to Investigate"

Former Shinjaemin, Ministry of Strategy and Finance Officer

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Shin Jae-min, a former official of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance who raised suspicions about the government's attempt to replace the KT&G president and the Blue House's coercion to issue deficit bonds at the end of 2018, recently criticized the inappropriate behavior of ministry executives he experienced during his tenure in his book titled "Why the World Does Not Change Even When the Regime Changes."

Official Shin revealed, calling it "the backstage story of the 'boss of bosses' in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance," that "there were executives who made officials bring bidets on overseas business trips, executives who brought their daughters on trips and paid only part of the expenses, executives who used employees during working hours to move houses, and executives who mobilized employees as cheering squads at tennis tournaments they participated in."

Shin also pointed out, "At a drinking party, an official who accepted ice from an executive said he 'received a favor,' and when the official sitting next to him felt hurt, the executive gave the ice held in his mouth to the neighboring official as well," adding, "An unregulated and unsupervised executive branch becomes fragmented and privatized like this, and high-ranking officials become 'beings who bestow favors.'"

Regarding the 'Lone Star lawsuit' compensation, which is expected to reach up to 5 trillion won if lost, Shin claimed, "There was an internal government consideration to bypass the National Assembly and compensate using the world surplus funds." The world surplus funds refer to the money remaining after expenditures from collected taxes.

He noted that although it ultimately did not happen, "At the time, (Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon) instructed to check whether the world surplus funds could be used for Lone Star compensation," criticizing it as an "attempt at irregular national financial management."

The U.S.-based private equity fund Lone Star filed an investor-state dispute settlement (ISD) lawsuit with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in 2012, claiming that it suffered a loss of $4.6795 billion (about 5.2 trillion won) because the Korean government delayed the sale of Korea Exchange Bank. This lawsuit has yet to be concluded.

He wrote, "The idea of using the world surplus funds, which are handled by the executive branch with only the Cabinet's approval, for Lone Star compensation was judged to be wrong because it bypasses the National Assembly, which should determine the right or wrong of the executive branch, and after review, a report stating 'repayment with world surplus funds is difficult' was prepared."

However, "Since the report went against the Deputy Prime Minister's instructions, an order to rewrite it was issued, and while preparing the re-report, the supplementary budget (Chugyeong) was decided," he described, "As the world surplus funds were used as the supplementary budget source, the report itself became a non-issue."

Shin lamented, "There was no proper discussion, only orders and acceptance, creating a broken policy."

Regarding his 2018 revelations, Shin defended, "It was not a disclosure born out of dissatisfaction without conviction, but an attempt to publicize fundamental and chronic structural problems of the system."

Currently enrolled at Korea University Graduate School of Public Administration, he said, "I will become a researcher who criticizes the problems of the executive branch and proposes alternatives in the future."

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