Government Recommends Voluntary Return of Over 10% of Performance Bonuses by Executives in Public Institutions

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] The government has recommended that all executives (heads of institutions, auditors, and standing directors) of public institutions voluntarily return at least 10% of their performance bonuses as part of sharing the burden caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Deputy Minister An Il-hwan of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced this during the briefing of the '6th Public Institution Management Committee' held on the afternoon of the 19th.

Deputy Minister An urged, "Please take the lead in sharing the pain and overcoming the crisis by considering the difficulties faced by the people and our economy."

The government pays performance bonuses differentially based on the results of institution and audit evaluations. Since March, the public institution evaluation team has been assessing the management performance of 129 public enterprises and quasi-governmental institutions, as well as the job performance of standing auditors at 62 institutions. If the evaluation results are poor, the structure is such that less performance bonus is received.

This year, as part of sharing the burden of the COVID-19 crisis, all executives are recommended to voluntarily return at least 10% of their performance bonuses. For financial-type institutions, the recommendation is at least 15%.

Additionally, through collective agreements, it was recommended to pay part of the employees' performance bonuses in local love gift certificates or Onnuri gift certificates.

If executives have already voluntarily returned or decided to return their wages this year, they may exclude the returned portion from the amount to be returned.

The returned amounts will be voluntarily donated to various donation recipients.

The government plans to report the finalized management evaluation results confirmed by the Public Institution Management Committee to the National Assembly and the President in the future.

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