Board of Audit and Inspection Announces Public Audit Results on 'Scoring Controversy' in Tax Accountant Exam: "Arbitrary Criteria Changes and Lack of Consistency"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The Board of Audit and Inspection announced on the 27th the results of a public audit on the tax accountant qualification exam, which faced scoring controversies last year, confirming poor scoring practices such as arbitrary changes to the criteria and inconsistent scoring.

Regarding the second round of the tax accountant qualification exam held in December last year, about 750 examinees requested a public audit on 13 items across four areas, including the legality and fairness of the exam question setting and scoring process, together with then-presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo.

The Board of Audit and Inspection stated that the Ministry of Employment and Labor inspected 12 out of the 13 items in April and conducted an audit related to 'partial score involvement.'

The Board pointed out, "Mr. A, who was both a question setter and scorer for Question 1 of Tax Law Part 2, unilaterally changed the scoring criteria for Question 3 without going through the scoring criteria review meeting, citing that there were not many answers matching his intended question design during scoring." Furthermore, it explained that the Human Resources Development Service of Korea mistakenly informed the committee member that arbitrary changes were possible and did not take separate measures to verify the appropriateness of the changed criteria or the consistency of scoring.

The Board of Audit and Inspection judged that this confusion arose because the problem was set without sufficient review. The Board stated, "Question 3 (worth 10 points) of Question 1 in Tax Law Part 2 asked about the timing of issuing tax invoices under the Value-Added Tax Act, but the question included sentences that differed from the relevant law, making the exam setter's intention unclear and causing potential misunderstandings."

Additionally, the Board criticized, "The Human Resources Development Service of Korea did not use mock exam personnel to review the appropriateness of problem expressions or the possibility of disputes over correct answers during the second round of the tax accountant qualification exam question setting process," and pointed out that "there was no procedure in place to verify the appropriateness of the questions."

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