Four Years of Moon Administration, Financial Public Institutions Overrun by 'Camcorder' (Comprehensive)

4 out of 10 Auditors and Non-Executive Directors Are 'Parachute and Favor' Appointments
Key Positions Held Despite Lack of Expertise... Criticism of Double Standards

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jin-ho] #. "In public institution personnel appointments, we will ensure that unqualified individuals, parachute appointments, or appointments made as favors do not occur." (President Moon Jae-in, remarks at a luncheon meeting with leaders of the four ruling and opposition parties early in his presidency)

Over the four years since President Moon Jae-in took office, it has been revealed that 4 out of 10 auditors or non-standing directors in financial public institutions were filled with 'Camcorder (campaign camp + code + Democratic Party of Korea)' personnel. Although President Moon declared at the start of his term that there would be no 'parachute or favor appointments' in public institutions, the proportion has actually increased. As personnel lacking expertise in their duties occupy key positions, criticism has arisen that the double standards of 'Naeronambul (If I do it, it's romance; if others do it, it's an affair)' have gone too far.

On the 30th, Asia Economy analyzed the auditors and non-standing directors of seven financial public institutions (KDB Industrial Bank, Export-Import Bank of Korea, IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, Korea Housing Finance Corporation, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Korea Asset Management Corporation (Kamco)) based on public disclosure data from the Public Institution Alio system, finding that about 42% were not free from suspicion of being 'political parachute' appointments. Despite the fact that expertise is more important in financial public enterprises than in other public enterprises due to their nature, nearly half of the personnel were found to be lacking in qualifications.

Regarding the auditor positions, which play a crucial role in checking the institution head (CEO), monitoring internal corruption and misconduct, and supervising accounting tasks, five major public institutions including KDB, Eximbank, IBK, Korea Housing Finance Corporation, and Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation were classified as having 'parachute personnel.' A representative figure is former Democratic Party lawmaker Jeong Jae-ho. Jeong, who served as the secretary of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee during the 20th National Assembly, took the auditor position at IBK after his bid for the 21st general election was thwarted. Kim Jong-cheol, an auditor at Eximbank, is also a lawyer who provided legal advice to President Moon’s campaign.

The institution with the highest proportion of parachute appointments among non-standing directors, equivalent to outside directors in private companies, is KDB. Three out of five non-standing director positions are classified as parachute appointments. Former Kangwon Research Institute director Yuk Dong-han, appointed at the end of June last year, ran as a Democratic Party candidate in the 21st general election but lost in the party primary and has since served as a non-standing director. Non-standing director Lee Yoon is classified as a 'code personnel' due to overlapping tenure with KDB Chairman Lee Dong-geol at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.

Korea Credit Guarantee Fund also has a large number of parachute appointments. Park Mi-hye, appointed as a non-standing director in February, is the head of the Gyeongnam branch of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) and served as co-chair of the Gyeongnam Election Committee in Moon Jae-in’s 18th presidential campaign. Kim Gong-hoe, appointed on the same day, was a member of the National Growth subcommittee of the Presidential Policy Planning Committee and was responsible for the Moon administration’s income-led growth and economic democratization policies. Non-standing directors Han Seung-hee and Seo Jong-sik served as industrial communication secretaries during the participatory government and as Democratic Party candidates for mayor of Gwangyang, Jeonnam, respectively.

At the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, figures from the ruling party occupy many senior positions. In March, former senior expert committee member of the National Assembly Secretariat Park Sang-jin was appointed as a standing director. He previously ran as a Democratic Party preliminary candidate in last year’s general election. In October last year, former Democratic Party policy chief Lee Han-gyu was appointed as an auditor.

Other financial public institutions such as Kamco and Korea Housing Finance Corporation also have a significant number of non-standing directors closely connected to the Democratic Party or the Moon Jae-in administration. At Kamco, 4 out of 8 non-standing directors and at Korea Housing Finance Corporation, 3 out of 7 are classified as 'parachute personnel.'

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