The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs has confirmed that most suspicions raised against Korean Veterans Association Chairman Cho Nam-pung are true, after a month-long inspection.
The ministry said Cho, a 77-year-old retired Army general, ignored an internal rule on "special recruitment’’ to hire 12 unqualified people who were close to him. The rule requires the association to recruit people under 60 who have served in a relevant area for more than three years, but eight of them did not meet the requirement.
The most controversial appointee was a relative of Cho’s close confidant, surnamed Choi, who was appointed as director of the association’s management bureau. The director is suspected of fabricating documents to help Choi, who has been on trial for inflicting a loss of nearly 80 billion won to the association, receive a light penalty.
The association’s newly created union claims that Cho received a large amount of elections funds from Choi in April when he was elected chairman. Union officials also say most of the 13 newly appointed CEOs and executives at the association’s affiliated companies worked for Cho during the April election.
It’s a shame that the veterans’ group, which boasts a paid membership of 1.3 million retired soldiers, has degenerated into a hotbed of corruption. It is currently running 10 companies, and most of its businesses are highly profitable thanks to favors granted by the government. Their combined sales surpass 400 billion won a year.
The association receives government subsidies separately, but its debt is currently 500 billion won. This has been caused by lax management by the retired general-turned-chairmen devoid of professionalism and a string of irregularities perpetrated by employees due to loosened internal controls.
The veterans ministry asked the association to call off the personnel appointments and reprimand two personnel officials, but didn’t take any action against its chairman, the key figure in the latest corruption scandal. This is incomprehensible, but might have stemmed from the fact that Cho is nine years senior to Park Sung-choon, the incumbent minister of veterans affairs, during their time at the Korea Military Academy.
The association’s union has filed a petition with the presidential office calling for an investigation into Cho’s alleged irregularities, and soon plans to lodge a complaint on its own with the prosecution. But prosecutors don’t need to wait for the complaint to arrive. They should embark on an investigation immediately to get to the bottom of the irregularities.
The veterans ministry, for its part, needs to suspend Cho as soon as possible because he does not deserve to lead the welfare group for retired soldiers, given the ministry’s inspection results to date.