Public Officials Fined for Changing Scores Without Reinterview in Environmental Cleaner Tie Cases

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Public officials who selected the final successful candidates by changing existing interview scores without a re-interview, despite a tie occurring during the open recruitment process for two sanitation workers, were sentenced to fines.

On the 14th, the Criminal Division 2 of Chuncheon District Court (Chief Judge Jin Won-du) announced that it sentenced A (58), who was indicted on charges of obstruction of official duties by deception and forgery of official documents, to a fine of 15 million KRW, the same as the original trial. For B (33), who was also tried on the same charges, the court overturned the original fine of 15 million KRW and imposed a fine of 3 million KRW.

A participated as one of three interviewers in the open recruitment for sanitation workers in February 2019, and B was in charge of tasks related to the open recruitment. At that time, for the open recruitment to select two people, 14 candidates who passed the first document screening took the second physical test, and 10 passed. As a result of the third interview screening, two candidates tied for second place.

B, knowing this fact, did not inform the higher approval authority and instead reported it to A.

A asked an interviewer from the same region as one of the two tied candidates to modify the interview score sheet, changing some already scored evaluation items from "medium" to "high." Afterwards, B falsely prepared an official document titled "Final Selection of Sanitation Workers" as if there had been no tie from the beginning and obtained approval.

The first trial court stated, "Although the public officials arbitrarily proceeded with the recruitment process of the public institution, there was no precedent for handling ties at that time, and the related regulations or implementation plans were unclear. It appears that the crime was committed due to immature or careless handling of the work," and sentenced them to fines.

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