Employment & Corruption

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Eight applicants turned down from positions at public agencies due to corruption of the hiring process have been extended offers to jobs they were in fact qualified to do. It’s part of the government’s effort to clamp down on illicit job favors and corruption in the hiring process at public agencies. It’s likely that more job applicants will be reconsidered.

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The Korea Gas Safety Corporation is one of the public agencies where hiring irregularities were committed recently. The corporation deliberately failed female applicants by fabricating their interview scores in line with the company president's order not to hire women. Instead, the corporation illegally hired three applicants in return for favors. Over two years, eight applicants were illegitimately denied the opportunity to work for the corporation. But they have been recognized as victims and received a chance to join the corporation in the second half of the year.

[Soundbite] (Victim of Hiring Irregularities (Voice modified)) : "I wrote 80 job applications. It was so unfair. I'm glad that my skills have been finally recognized."

The government estimates the number of hiring corruption victims to reach at least one hundred. But it's unclear how many of them will be able to receive help. Identifying victims requires investigations or even trials, and there must be records on the hiring process. Solving hiring irregularities in the banking sector is even more challenging, as can be seen from the recent resignation of Financial Supervisory Service chief Choe Heung-shik over employment corruption. Prosecutorial probes and investigations carried out by the financial authorities are not over yet.

[Soundbite] Choi Jong-ku(Financial Service Commission (Nat'l Policy Committee, Mar. 13)) : "We will make sure to uproot hiring irregularities to prevent them from being repeated. This probe must serve as an opportunity to set the power of financial authorities straight."

Receiving help is especially difficult for the victims of hiring irregularities at banks, as they lack regulations on the cases of hiring staff illegitimately.