'Kindergarten body attempted to lobby lawmakers against tougher regulations'

Lee Deok-sun, head of the Korean Kindergarten Association, hands over a written opinion to an official at the Ministry of Education to request withdrawal of bills proposed by Rep. Park Yong-jin to make private kindergartens' use of government subsidies transparent at the ministry building in Sejong City on Jan. 23. / Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

An interest group for private kindergartens attempted to lobby lawmakers into siding with them in opposing three bills aimed at strengthening regulations on their operations, the regional education office in Seoul said, Thursday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said it would ask the prosecution to investigate the Korea Kindergarten Association's (KKA) alleged violation of the Political Fund Law and other irregularities, after conducting a special inspection last month.

Based on the prosecution's probe results, SMOE, which holds authority over the KKA, will decide whether to revoke its license.

The SMOE said it will consider revoking the license of the KKA. “We will wait for the investigation results by the prosecution and decide afterward,” an SMOE official said.

According to the SMOE inspection, in an online group chat of some 3,000 KKA members, the group leaders shared the bank account numbers of several lawmakers, who were against the bills which Rep. Park Yong-jin of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) proposed last year to make private kindergartens' use of government subsidies transparent.

They encouraged the members to donate less than 100,000 won each, the political fund donation limit an individual can offer anonymously, to the lawmakers.

Some members actually sent money to the lawmakers, who then sent it back knowing the money was a lobbying attempt from the KKA members.

According to the law, it is illegal for a corporate body to provide political funds or to force its workers or members to do so.

“A Supreme Court precedent showed that even if the money was donated by individual members of a group, it can be regarded as donated by the group if the group encouraged its members to do so,” the official said.

It also accused two members of the KKA for breaching the Personal Information Protection Act.

The two purposely shared the phone numbers of Rep. Park and the head of the KKA's Seoul branch, Park Young-ran, with 3,000 association members and induced them to send mass protest text messages.

At the time, the Seoul branch head faced criticism from its main body for declaring it would not join the headquarters' plan to close down their facilities in protest of Rep. Park's revision bills.

The SMOE also said the KKA collects more than 3 billion won in membership fees annually, and many of the members are suspected of paying it from the tuition which parents provide, which is against the relevant law. A part of the money, around 2 billion won, was spent staging rallies against the revision bills at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul late last year.

The KKA's former leaders also allegedly embezzled the association's money. Its current head, Lee Deok-seon, was selected according to the group's own articles of association which was unapproved by the SMOE, and thus Lee is legally ineligible to represent the group, it said.

However, the KKA released a statement refuting almost all accusations by the SMOE. It said it would accept any punishment if the allegations are revealed to be true.