Bad public sector management to be rooted out

Public corporations that perform similar functions will be consolidated, such as Korea Coal Corporation and Korea Resources Corporation. Moreover, the budget for personnel remuneration for public corporations that still implement the accumulative retirement allowance system will be sharply reduced.

The Ministry of Planning and Budget (MPB) on Monday prepared a set of measures against negligent administration by some of the public corporations as pointed out by the Board of Audit and Inspection, to propose at the Cabinet meeting on Sept. 19. Minister Jeon Yun-Churl presided over an emergency meeting of the MPB held on the same day, and disused various measures concluding that negligent administration stemmed from strong unions and moral hazard from the management.

The ministry will discuss with related offices in an effort to outsource skilled work for the Korea Racing Association, which incorporated the same pay steps as general work for skilled work, and return the proceeds to society. Moreover, the ministry will reduce the budget for personnel remuneration of the public corporations that still implement the accumulative retirement allowance and reinforce the inspection for wrongdoing. The ministry will penalize corporations that resort to expedients including pay raises in the name of improving the retirement allowance system.

The MPB will discuss the same matter with heads of planning and management from related offices on Sept. 19, after proposing the measures at the cabinet meeting.

Lee Hoon dreamland@donga.com