Public Firms Alert Over Widening Investigation
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The prosecution raided the headquarters of Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, a day after its investigators hit the Korea Exchange (KRX) and Korea Asset Management Corp.
Prosecutors said they were looking into the oil company following a tip from whistleblower that KNOC officials had embezzled cash and taken bribes in developing new oil fields overseas.
``A series of recent raids are in line with the government's efforts to make public firms more transparent and competitive by weeding out rampant corruption,'' an official said.
However, some critics have refuted the allegation, claiming the investigations were political.
``It has long been known that the new government has sought ways to replace incumbent public firms' heads, mostly appointed by the former administration, with aides of President Lee Myung-bak. And the recent raids are part of this,'' a state-backed company official told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity. ``It's sort of preparatory work for the replacement of the bosses of public companies.''
Lim Chae-min, vice minister of knowledge economy ministry, told reporters Tuesday that the government would soon select 24 new faces to head state-backed firms.
Some people alleged that the raid on the KRX was also an attempt to force Chairman Lee Jung-hak to resign.
Lee took the top job last March beating out Lee Pal-seung, the administrative head of Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, who is known to be close to President Lee. Lee Pal-seung dropped out of the race due to fierce opposition from the KRX union.
``Every man has a skeleton in his closet. It's doubtful as to why the prosecution recently launched large-scale investigations into public companies. They have known about such wrongdoings in the public sector for the past six months. We see this move as a way to get rid of corporate heads,'' the public firm official said.
Meanwhile, the Board of Audit and Inspection discovered four officials at the Korea Minting & Security Printing Corp. (KOMSCO) who manipulated test scores to get unqualified applicants employment there. It ordered KOMSCO to discipline them.