SR, Railroad, and Airport Corporation Provide High-Ranking Officials with 'Free Accommodation' Worth Hundreds of Billions of Won

Assemblyman Kim Du-kwan: "Public Institutions' Reckless Management and Moral Hazard"

Photo by Asia Economy

Public institutions such as SR, Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), and Korea Airports Corporation have been found to provide high-ranking employees with rental housing worth 20 billion KRW free of charge.

According to the 'Rental Housing Status for Long-Distance Commuters' data submitted by SR to Kim Du-kwan, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, SR provides free housing to a total of 52 employees. Among them, more than 55%, or 29 employees, are executives of grade 3 or higher. Of the 38 accommodations provided by SR, 22 are located in Gangnam and Songpa districts.

KORAIL revealed that a total of 150 employees receive free housing benefits. All of them are executives of grade 2 or higher. While KORAIL claims this is welfare for long-distance commuters, there are criticisms that the reality is different.

According to the 'Rental Housing for Long-Distance Commuters' data submitted by KORAIL to Assemblyman Kim's office, a center director (grade 1) living in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, was provided with an apartment in Jung-gu, Seoul (with a jeonse deposit of 570 million KRW), and a director (grade 1) living in Ilsan, Goyang City, was provided with an officetel in Yongsan-gu, Seoul (with a jeonse deposit of 328.6 million KRW).

As of the 25th of last month, the total jeonse rental cost borne by the company was 20.1 billion KRW, and all residents were executives of grade 3 or higher. They were only responsible for management fees and utility bills.

Korea Airports Corporation also provided free housing to 678 employees. The budget spent by the corporation on providing these accommodations totaled 82.8 billion KRW.

There are criticisms of reckless management amid large-scale deficits caused by the impact of COVID-19. The deficits of SR and KORAIL reached 24.6 billion KRW and 888.1 billion KRW respectively last year. Korea Airports Corporation also recorded a deficit of 274 billion KRW.

Assemblyman Kim said, "Providing employee housing in relatively expensive areas such as Gangnam and Songpa in Seoul is a typical case of reckless management in public institutions and moral hazard," adding, "The provision of housing to high-ranking employees should also be closely examined from the perspective of public institution reform."

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