Gwangju Office of Education Files Complaint Against Former Chairman of Private School Corporation for Embezzlement and Salary Inflation

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Kwan-woo] The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 7th that it has reported the former chairman of the Gwangju D School Foundation to the prosecution for embezzlement and improper payment of salary burdens.

The Office of Education announced the results of an audit conducted from the 14th to the 24th of last year on the accounting operations and overall academic and administrative management of the D School Foundation.

The D School Foundation filed 11 defamation lawsuits against teachers and the media, and during the process, embezzled approximately 159 million KRW in litigation costs by spending from the scholarship fund set aside for students without separately budgeting it in the foundation’s budget.

Additionally, the foundation inflated the salary steps of four teachers, including the two daughters of the former chairman who were employed as teachers, and improperly paid about 66 million KRW in salaries over the past five years.

Furthermore, numerous cases of non-compliance with business promotion expenses and travel expense execution standards (43 cases, 6.45 million KRW) were also pointed out.

The Office of Education notified the supervisory department to cancel the approval of appointment for the foundation’s auditor, including the former chairman, to ensure transparency in accounting operations and protect students’ right to learn.

Along with this, two staff members involved in illegal accounting management were severely disciplined, one was lightly disciplined, and the foundation was requested to recover 78.96 million KRW in excess personnel expenses from the responsible parties.

In particular, the former chairman, who abnormally executed the foundation’s budget for litigation costs, was reported to the prosecution on charges of embezzlement in the course of duty.

Jang Hwi-guk, Superintendent of Gwangju Education, stated, “We will realize a clean Gwangju education and protect teachers’ rights and students’ learning rights by respecting the autonomy of private school management to the fullest extent, but we will strictly punish private school corruption with a zero-tolerance policy. We will continue to do our best to restore public trust in private schools and ensure that school foundations faithfully fulfill their original roles.”

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