Samsung names new chief auditor

Samsung Group Tuesday replaced its two top managers for auditing and human resources.

Chung Hyun-ho moved from Samsung Digital Imaging to take over as chief of the group’s auditing team.

Chung Keum-yong was named to lead the group’s human resources.

It is widely speculated that the appointments of the two executives have much to do with a call by Samsung’s leader Lee Kun-hee to uproot intramural corruption.

Oh Chang-suk was forced to step down as chief of Samsung Techwin, the group’s defense and precision machinery unit.

Oh’s resignation followed Lee’s condemnation of corruption inside Korea’s largest conglomerate but its officials kept tight-lipped about any concrete cases of corruption that Lee declared a war against.

Samsung’s auditing team is expected to lead a group-wide inspection to ferret out dishonest practices.

Officials give no hint of a timeframe suggesting Samsung’s intensifying anti-corruption drive may go on indefinitely.

“The key point is Samsung’s new auditing teams are becoming more powerful,’’ said the insider.

Samsung had dismantled its strategic planning office, formerly led by the chairman’s top aide Lee Hak-soo. Now, the new tool to control the group is led by Lee Kun-hee’s trusted lieutenant Kim Soon-taek.

``More changes will come and that’s definitely a part of Samsung’s anti-corruption drive,’’ said an analyst at a local brokerage on the condition of anonymity.