Embarrassing Personnel Management

Gender Equality Minister-designate Lee Choon-ho, Unification Minister-designate Nam Joo-hong and Environment Minister-designate Park Eun-kyeong have all withdrawn their nominations. Nam was criticized for his children’s dual citizenship, illegally receiving extra tax credits for education fees, while Park was accused of alleged involvement in real estate speculation. To save face, President Lee Myung-bak did not force the two to step down. However, their resignations came right after the president agreed to withdraw his nominations on the two contentious nominees at the request of the Grand National Party. Party leaders claimed that the resignation of the two nominees was inevitable.

Presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan urged the opposition United Democratic Party to help the new administration make a fresh start. However, too many things have gone wrong to do so. The government downsizing plan has been hampered by the opposition party and the formation of the Cabinet has been tarnished by the embarrassing backgrounds of nominees. Quite a number of minister-nominees were in the hot seat during yesterday’s confirmation hearings, which addressed their illicit wealth creation, draft dodging, and children’s foreign nationality. Some deplored the situation, asking, “Why do they have so many flaws?”

There is a saying that personnel management is everything. President Lee and Cheong Wa Dae must shoulder the responsibility for selecting unqualified Cabinet nominees.

Some lawmakers criticize those who were in charge of screening the nominees, including presidential chief of staff Yu Woo-ik , presidential secretary for planning and coordination Park Young-joon, and Seoul city personnel manager Yoon Han-hong. Those lawmakers say, “They worked day and night for a whole month to screen some 5,000 candidates. How could the results be so wrong?”

If the president and his aides paid a little more attention and checked backgrounds, they probably would have found most of the nominees’ contentious flaws. It arouses suspicion that there might be a fundamental problem in the president’s philosophy in personnel management. Perhaps he was too liberal about verifying the qualifications of Cabinet nominees as he may believe that it is natural to have a certain degree of shortcomings because they lived in an era of rapid growth. If there is a gap between President Lee’s criteria on the ethics of public servants and the people’s expectations, he should narrow that gap before it is too late. The president said that he will serve the people with devotion. If he is willing to stick to his promise, he must consider public sentiment and appoint leaders who can meet the people’s expectations.

The UDP should also stop linking the confirmation hearings of the minister-nominees to the vote on the appointment of the prime minister, which has resulted in creating a dysfunctional government whereby the incoming president works with outgoing ministers. Rumors have it that some lawmakers who took the lead in the BBK scandal vowed to vote against the nomination unless their charges were dropped. If this is true, they will not be able to avoid the people’s criticism.