Gwi-Soon Lee of Gwangju City Council: "'Parachute Appointment Prevention' Is Just for Show"

Personnel Appointments at City-Affiliated Organizations Remain Opaque
Only 10 Out of 29 Agencies Apply the Synchronized Term System

Gwi-Soon Lee, Gwangju City Council Member.

On September 1, Gwi-Soon Lee, a member of the Gwangju City Council (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangsan District 4), raised concerns about potential violations of the Public Officials Ethics Act and suspicions of “parachute appointments” during the recent process of appointing CEOs at Gwangju’s affiliated organizations, during a question session at the 336th temporary session of the Administrative Autonomy Committee.

Lee criticized, “Mayor Kang Gi-jung claims through social media and city hall banners that ‘Gwangju is already enforcing an ordinance to prevent parachute appointments of public institution heads,’ but in reality, out of 29 affiliated organizations-including public corporations, foundations, and institutes-only 10 are actually subject to the synchronized term system. From the perspective of citizens, it inevitably appears that parachute appointments are still taking place.”

In particular, regarding the case where a director from the Department of Autonomous Administration applied for the CEO position at the Gwangju Urban Regeneration Community Center (a foundation affiliated with the city) while still in office, Lee pointed out, “There are inevitable suspicions that the position may have been practically guaranteed even before the honorable retirement.”

She continued, “Article 17 of the Public Officials Ethics Act stipulates that retired public officials are restricted from employment for three years at organizations closely related to their previous department. Since this organization is affiliated with the Department of Autonomous Administration, it clearly requires employment screening, so it is necessary to confirm whether such screening was conducted before the board appointment process,” raising procedural concerns.

Lee emphasized, “The ‘parachute appointment prevention’ system highlighted by Mayor Kang is only applied to some organizations in practice, while the rest remain nontransparent. To ensure the intent of the system is realized, its scope should be expanded to all organizations, and oversight of retired officials’ employment at affiliated institutions should be strengthened.”

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