Preventing Bus Company’s Poor Accounting Audits and Hiring Corruption in Advance

Seoul City Prepares Improvement Plan to Enhance Transparency of 'City Bus Semi-Public Operation System'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Starting this year, Seoul City has mandated that the accounting audits of bus companies be conducted by an external accounting firm pool selected by the city, the bus association, and experts. Additionally, a joint recruitment system through a hiring pool will be introduced for city bus drivers to prevent hiring corruption such as bribery and to enhance fairness.

On the 24th, Seoul City announced that it will actively implement detailed measures to strengthen the transparency of bus companies, which is the top priority task among the 'Basic Plan for Improving the Semi-Public Bus System' announced last year.

The semi-public bus system, introduced in 2004, has achieved several outcomes such as reducing accidents, improving citizen service satisfaction, and enhancing driver treatment. However, it has also faced controversies including driver hiring corruption, suspicions about the transparency of bus company accounting, and criticism regarding the management of bus transportation revenue. Accordingly, since October last year, the city has engaged in close discussions with labor and management and, after deliberation by the Bus Policy Citizens Committee, has prepared more fundamental solutions.

First, to prevent the possibility of inadequate or sloppy audits in external accounting audits of bus companies, the city changed the previous method where each company arbitrarily selected an external auditor (accounting firm). From now on, a pool of accounting firms will be established, and each bus company must appoint an accounting firm from this pool. This aims to prevent collusion between bus companies and accounting firms or damage to accounting transparency caused by long-term exclusive contracts.

Accordingly, a pool of 19 accounting firms (17 accounting firms and 2 audit teams) selected by an evaluation committee composed of the city, the bus association, and external experts will be responsible for auditing the accounts of all 65 city bus companies in Seoul starting this year. Furthermore, to block any potential inadequate audits even after operating the accounting firm pool, the pool will be periodically restructured through evaluations.

To eradicate hiring corruption involving bribery in exchange for employment, a 'joint recruitment system' will also be implemented. Labor, management, government, and external experts will form a hiring pool of qualified job seekers for bus driver recruitment, and bus companies will select candidates according to each company's hiring policies from this pool.

During this process, strengthened qualification requirements such as accident records, penalty points, and drinking history will be applied to focus on screening out unqualified drivers. In cases where corruption such as bribery occurs, all hiring authority related to the respective bus company will be exercised by a recruitment review committee composed of labor, management, government, and experts in personnel, labor, and transportation fields for a certain period.

Alongside this, Seoul City will establish a 'Revenue Joint Management Council Supervisory Committee' as a public monitoring mechanism for the Revenue Joint Management Council, which manages all companies' bus transportation revenue and city financial support funds under the jurisdiction of the business association. As an external control body, the committee will receive reports on the council’s settlement audits and recommend improvements for any issues requiring immediate action in overall operations. It may also request analysis or audits from the city or external professional institutions.

Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Urban Transportation at Seoul City, stated, "This improvement plan for the semi-public bus system marks the first step in resolving social criticism regarding the transparency and reliability of city bus operations. We will continue to strive for rationalizing financial support, enhancing company management efficiency, and improving citizen services to further improve the semi-public system."

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