Is Parachute Personnel Practice Still Alive?

In spite of the Roh administration’s policy to make every effort to block “parachute personnel practice,” retired high government officials are still moving to government affiliated organizations.

According to Dong-A Ilbo’s tracking and investigation of first-level officials’ re-employment status since the launch of Roh administration, half of these former employees have been re-employed in either government-affiliated or related organizations.

The investigation was conducted throughout 48 central administrative organizations where general public servants work while other government organizations consisting of specific public servants including Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Defense, Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office, National Police Agency, National Intelligence Service, and Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea were exempted from the investigation.

According to this investigation, since the Roh administration, of the 70 first-level officials who retired, 37 (53%) of them have been re-employed in government-affiliated organizations.

In addition, 16 people entered the political arena. Of these sixteen, six people were elected as members of the Seventeenth National Assembly and five people are lecturing at universities.

Eleven people failed to find a new job. Among those who are not re-employed, seven people are from administrative organizations without any affiliations, such as the Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification and overseas public relations.

The average age of first-level officials who have been re-employed in affiliated organizations or conglomerates is 57.6 years, which is two-and-a-half years older than 55.1 year average age of retied first-level officials.

Meanwhile, the average age of those who entered the political arena is 52.1 years, three years less than the average.

Civic group Peoplepower21 criticized the fact that more than half of retired first-level officials shifted to affiliated organizations, saying, “Typical parachute personal practice extended the retirement age of higher government officials.”

Most public servants refute this accusation, saying, “It is not appropriate to regard it unconditionally as parachute personnel practice just because we were public servants.”

Hyun-Doo Lee ruchi@donga.com