Statistics Korea Chief on Data Manipulation Controversy: "Failure to Pre-Check Impact of Sample Expansion" [2023 National Audit]

Lee Hyung-il, Commissioner of Statistics Korea, stated on the 12th that "despite differences in opinions between departments, the Welfare Statistics Division, which was in charge of the investigation, applied weighting factors" in relation to the controversy over manipulation of household income statistics by Statistics Korea in 2017.

On the same day, during the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee audit held at the government Daejeon office, Lee responded to a question from Yoon Young-seok, a member of the People Power Party, who asked, "At that time, did Statistics Korea arbitrarily apply weighting factors to manipulate household income statistics to appear increased?"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Until 2016, Statistics Korea conducted simultaneous quarterly surveys on household income and expenditure, but in 2017-2018, it published income data (quarterly statistics) and expenditure data (annual statistics) separately. The Board of Audit and Inspection recently pointed out in an interim audit report that when the household income for the second quarter of 2017 showed a decrease, Statistics Korea manipulated the data to appear as if household income had increased by arbitrarily applying a "worker weighting factor" to the income of "households with employed persons."

Commissioner Lee said, "In the second quarter of 2017, there was back-and-forth between the Sampling Division, which is responsible for sample design, and the Welfare Statistics Division, which is the field survey department, regarding the application of weighting factors," adding, "The Sampling Division showed a negative stance on applying the weighting factors, but it was confirmed that the field survey department applied them."

Regarding Yoon's allegation that this procedural change was made without the approval of then-Commissioner Hwang Soo-kyung, Lee replied, "This case involves a change in the method of result compilation, and it was confirmed that authority was delegated to the directors and division chiefs at that time," but added, "Since the reasons related to this were not specified, we need to wait for the final audit results."

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