Retired Public Officials Avoiding Screening for 'Mass' Reemployment... 159 Cases Fined

Ministry of Personnel Management, 'Cunning Reemployment' Public Officials' Review Results Not Disclosed Due to Retirement Reason

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Sun-hee] It was revealed in large numbers that retired public officials in the first half of this year re-employed themselves arbitrarily without undergoing employment screening. They are expected to be fined up to 50 million KRW.

The Government Public Officials Ethics Committee (Ethics Committee) disclosed the results of the employment screening for retired public officials on the 24th. This screening was conducted on the 18th.

According to the Ethics Committee, there were a total of 174 cases in the first half of this year where individuals subject to employment screening did not undergo the screening and arbitrarily took employment at institutions subject to the screening. Among these, 80 cases were decided as "employment restricted," and the remaining 94 cases were decided as "employment permitted." For 159 of these cases, a request for fines was made to the competent courts.

In particular, the Ministry of Personnel Management, the competent authority, stated that most of the 80 re-employed individuals who received employment restriction decisions due to confirmed close work-relatedness voluntarily resigned. However, they refused to disclose the detailed screening result list.

Criticism arises from the fact that if these retirees had properly applied for and undergone the screening in advance, information such as their affiliation and rank at their previous workplace, retirement date, prospective employer and position, and employment date would all have been disclosed, which is seen as unreasonable.

Regarding this, a Personnel Management official explained, "In cases where the individual has already retired, disclosing the affiliation or employment institution of the retired public official has no practical benefit in relation to requests for employment cancellation."

Meanwhile, for 71 cases of retired public officials who requested employment screening this month, the Ethics Committee decided on 2 cases of employment disapproval and 69 cases of employment approval. Additionally, for 9 cases of arbitrary employment without prior employment screening this month, fines were imposed and the individuals were reported to the competent courts.

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