"To Receive Higher Bonuses"... Korail Employees Manipulate Customer Satisfaction Scores

Announcement of Ministry of Land Audit Results... Uncovering Organizational Involvement
Employees Concealed Identities to Participate in Survey... 15% Fake
KORAIL "We Bow Our Heads and Apologize to the Public"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] It has been revealed through an audit by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) employees manipulated customer satisfaction surveys to receive higher performance bonuses. The Ministry instructed KORAIL to discipline 30 individuals involved and refer 16 for investigation.

On the 19th, the Ministry stated, "Following the minister's directive to thoroughly investigate allegations of manipulation of public institution customer satisfaction surveys by KORAIL employees, the audit found that a total of 208 people responded to 222 survey cases."

Customer satisfaction surveys are conducted at least once a year by public institutions that provide direct services to the public, targeting the citizens who receive those services. Employees of the institution are not allowed to participate in the surveys.

The results of these surveys are used as a measure of public service quality for public institutions. They are also reflected in the performance evaluation indicators of public institutions and used as criteria for awarding performance bonuses to employees.

The 2019 customer satisfaction survey for KORAIL was conducted under the supervision of the Korea Management Association Consulting at 25 train stations nationwide from January 13 to February 1 of this year.

The Ministry’s audit found no evidence of organized interference in the survey at the KORAIL headquarters level. However, employees from 8 out of 12 regional headquarters nationwide participated in the survey while concealing their KORAIL employee status to receive higher internal performance evaluations and thus larger performance bonuses. The manipulated surveys accounted for 222 out of 1,438 cases (15.4%).

Among the 8 regional headquarters involved in manipulation, the Seoul headquarters planned and executed the scheme under the leadership of the responsible department, deploying field support personnel. They shared information through group KakaoTalk chats, systematically and organizationally manipulating a total of 136 survey responses.

Three other headquarters in the western metropolitan area and elsewhere did not reach the level of Seoul headquarters but still organizationally encouraged employees to participate in the survey (71 cases). The remaining four headquarters, including Daejeon and Chungnam, had individual survey participation (15 cases) during business trips or work based on personal will.

It is expected that similar survey manipulation occurred in surveys before 2018, but all related data were destroyed in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act, preventing a full investigation.

The Ministry decided to strictly discipline the misconduct revealed by the audit, as it not only obstructed the fair investigation by the survey company but also seriously undermined the fairness and objectivity of the performance evaluation.

The Ministry issued a 'institutional warning' to KORAIL and disciplined 9 individuals, including 2 with severe penalties, while issuing warnings to 21 others based on their level of responsibility.

A total of 16 people, including 7 who led the manipulation and 9 superiors suspected of ordering or condoning it, will be referred for investigation on charges of obstruction of business.

The Ministry plans to improve survey methods and strengthen ethics education for all employees to prevent such manipulation in the future.

The Ministry’s audit officer said, "We plan to notify the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the audit results and will review follow-up measures such as disadvantages regarding performance bonuses for KORAIL employees."

KORAIL responded to the audit results by stating, "We bow our heads and sincerely apologize to the public."

KORAIL emphasized, "We will promptly establish and implement fundamental and extraordinary measures to prevent recurrence, including special ethics education for all employees, to ensure that such unfortunate incidents never happen again."

They added, "All executives and employees will do their best to become a transparent and trusted public corporation."

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