Who is the Integrity Solution 'Fixer' for Retirees Hired by Seoul Metro Contract Companies?

Ahn Yeonhwan, Standing Auditor of the Corporation, Appointed by Mayor Park Wonsoon on December 2 Last Year, Received Anti-Corruption Excellence Award for 'Comprehensive Measures for Corporation Retirees Employed by the Corporation and Contract Companies' and 'Establishment of Conflict of Interest Prevention Management System in Subway Store Advertising'

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] It has been one year since tax accountant Ahn Yeon-hwan was appointed as the Standing Auditor of Seoul Metro, which is used daily by 7.5 million Seoul citizens.

Appointed as the auditor of the Transportation Corporation by Mayor Park Won-soon on December 2 last year, he has been leading innovative reforms in the corporation’s audit work, including management accounting audits, by promoting preventive audits and consulting audits.

Auditor Ahn shifted the focus from traditional punitive post-audits to preventive and preemptive audits, thereby reducing employees’ workload and improving audit familiarity.

He is also evaluated as helping proper policy and decision-making by actively providing necessary information for the corporation’s management decisions through consulting audits.

The audit office led by Auditor Ahn has held monthly meetings to improve integrity and established concrete action plans.

Representative cases include the “Comprehensive Measures for Retired Employees of the Corporation Employed by the Corporation or Contract Companies” and the “Establishment of a Conflict of Interest Prevention Management System in the Subway Shopping Mall Advertising Sector.” Recently, these initiatives won the “Excellence Award in Anti-Corruption” and the “Grand Prize in Integrity Practice” respectively at the “Anti-Corruption and Integrity Practice Best Case Contest” hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Audit Committee.

In the “2020 Public Institution Integrity Measurement Survey” conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, the corporation’s integrity rating improved from grade 4 last year to grade 3, showing gradual improvement.

Auditor Ahn is also sparing no effort to overcome the corporation’s financial crisis. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, transportation revenue has sharply decreased, and a deficit of about 1 trillion won is expected, placing the corporation in a difficult situation.

To overcome this financial hardship, Auditor Ahn, along with President Kim Sang-beom of the corporation, visited the National Assembly over the past four months, meeting with standing committee chairs and about 30 lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties to earnestly appeal for national subsidies to cover public service costs such as free transportation.

Auditor Ahn said, “I will not forget my mindset at the time of appointment and will continue to actively implement preventive and preemptive audits and consulting audits based on integrity to open a new horizon for the corporation’s audit administration.”

Meanwhile, Auditor Ahn Yeon-hwan served as the president of the Korea Tax Accountants Examination Association, which consists of 12,000 members. He later served as a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Audit Committee and was appointed as the auditor of Seoul Metro by then Mayor Park Won-soon on December 2 last year.

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