Mayor requests audit into Seoul Metro nepotism scandal
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon responds to lawmakers at a National Assembly audit of the city government at Seoul City Hall, Monday. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han
By Lee Suh-yoon
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon submitted a formal request to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), Tuesday, to investigate a nepotism scandal at Seoul Metro, a city-owned operator of subway lines 1 to 8.
The audit request comes after dozens of opposition lawmakers claimed at a National Assembly audit of the city government last week that over 100 employees — possibly more — had unfair advantages in acquiring their permanent job contracts with Seoul Metro, mainly through insider information from relatives.
Earlier at Monday's audit session, Park promised to submit the case for inspection to an external body.
“There should be no injustice or discrimination in the employment process,” Park told lawmakers at the time. “Since an internal investigation will not fully deal with the allegations, we will submit what was discussed here for a formal audit by the BAI.”
Company records show 108 of 1,285 temporary workers promoted to permanent employment contracts with Seoul Metro in March had family ties to workers already working there.
Of the 108, 31 were children of employees, 22 were siblings and 12 were spouses.
Opposition lawmakers claim union members encouraged family members to join the company as temporary workers — relatively easy jobs to land — knowing they could be soon promoted to coveted permanent positions with the public company.
The city government, however, pointed out in a press statement that 34 of the specified 108 new employees were hired before the city government's change in job policy.
On the same day, opposition lawmakers from the Liberty Korea Party, the Bareunmirae Party and the Party for Democracy and Peace submitted a collective request to the Assembly to open a state investigation into the case. State investigations can be opened with agreement from over one-fourth of the seats.
Regarding the issue, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said Tuesday the government plans to have its own investigation into possible nepotism at public companies and take stern actions if irregularities are found.
“We are looking at the issue very seriously, and will take stern punitive measures against any hiring irregularities,” Kim told reporters after a meeting with economy-related ministers. “We'll check facts at the already emerged allegations, and will decide whether to expand the investigation into other public firms.”