SR under probe for dubious hiring
By Kim Se-jeong
SR CEO Lee Seung-ho /Yonhap
SR, one of the country’s two KTX operators, is facing a police investigation for allegedly hiring the unqualified children of its senior officials. The company is also suspected of employing children of Korail officials through the manipulation of interview scores.
Korail, the state-run railway operator, has a 41 percent stake in SR, which began running the high-speed train, connecting Suseo Station in southern Seoul with the southern cities of Busan and Gwangju, in December last year.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Monday that 13 new employees were hired last year due to influence wielding by their parents. Eight were believed to be the children of train engineers; four, the children of officials at Korail, and one a child of the SR’s union leader. No names of the children and parents were disclosed.
The police said for one of the four applicants whose parents were Korail employees, the applicant was selected despite poor performances during a written exam and an interview. The applicant beat out 68 competitors during the recruitment process.
In another case, police said the applicant, a child of another Korail employee, was hired only after an interview. They suspect SR might have simplified the recruitment process to favor that applicant and that the father might have had connection with one of the interviewers. The police said they were looking to see whether there was any money exchanged between the father and the interviewer.
The cronyism allegation was brought to light in October during the annual National Assembly audit of Korail.
People’s Party Rep. Joo Seung-yong raised the allegations and SR CEO Lee Seung-ho acknowledged that some of the new employees’ parents working for the same company. “We ran our own investigation, but it turned up nothing suspicious,” Lee said denying the allegations.
Founded in 2014, SR is managed by Korail and is expected to go public next month. Many in managerial positions are former Korail employees, including former CEO Kim Bok-hwan.
In response to the allegations, SR claimed that it didn’t bend any rules in hiring the children of Korail and its own staff members.
“We just had many positions to fill between 2014 and 2016 because we were pushing to get the trains operational. There was no corruption involved,” an SR official said.
Employment at SR is coveted among jobseekers, as the annual salary is around 60 million won ($55,133).
The allegation involving SR comes as no surprise according to one commentator as Korean society is plagued by cronyism.
The most recent case involved Kangwon Land, a casino operator, which allegedly hired certain people at the request of politicians and local bigwigs between 2012 and 2013. On Dec. 1, former CEO Choi Heung-jip was arrested on influence peddling charges.
The corruption prompted the government to conduct a large scale investigation into public company recruitment procedures. Only half completed, the investigation has found 275 suspected cases. An outraged President Moon Jae-in demanded that the people involved in the corruption be held accountable for what they had done.