ed Privileged officials

It’s no doubt that Cheong Wa Dae, the nation’s most powerful executive organ, must get tough on irregularities by its officials, but the reality is not always what it should be.

According to press reports, five civil servants who had been implicated in wrongdoing while working at the presidential office received no disciplinary action after reporting back to their own government units.

Rather, one of the five moved to a top-rated law firm thanks to his corporate watchdog career at the Fair Trade Commission in what appears to be a case of special treatment, and four others assumed key posts at their respective ministries, including the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

Cheong Wa Dae ousted the five after finding them involved in such irregularities as receiving gift coupons from large conglomerates worth millions of won, and golfing and dining between July and October of last year through an internal inspection.

One of the five, who returned to the Prime Minister’s Office, was accused of misappropriating a corporate credit card issued by the presidential office.

As to why they evaded sanctions despite their corruption and other malpractice, the relevant ministries alleged that they had been neither aware nor notified of their wrongdoings, let alone asked to penalize them.

In fact, the presidential office said the ministries didn’t punish them though it sent details about their irregularities in November, when they returned to the ministries.

This can be seen as a simple corruption case, given that no high-ranking officials were involved, but it should be a wake-up call to the Park Geun-hye administration in light of the lax discipline in officialdom.

To begin with, it defies understanding that mid-level officials at Cheong Wa Dae, the backbone of public administration, received bribes less than a year after since the new administration was launched.

It’s also questionable why the officials who were implicated were not penalized. A plausible suspicion is that both the presidential office and the ministries turned a blind eye to their wrongdoing amid the entrenched easy-going culture in the public sector.

Most serious is that Cheong Wa Dae officials are suspected of scaling down the case for fear of undermining the image of the newly inaugurated government.

In November, the presidential office announced that only one of the three returning officials was suspected of corruption, but it turned out that all of them had been ordered to return due to irregularities. Further, charges against the two remaining officials have been kept secret.

It’s common sense that discipline should be stricter in proportion to power. Chong Wa Dae needs to reexamine the nature of the latest incident and take appropriate measures against those involved in the fiasco.