Staff to Participate in Nominating Public Officials

Starting in April, the staff of public organizations will participate in nominating candidates for their organizations’ positions of chief, director, and inspector.

The Ministry of Planning and Budget announced yesterday that it will notify an act on operation of public organizations, which will be effective April 1 after its passage at a Cabinet meeting.

According to this act, a nomination board in public enterprises should include an individual who can speak for the opinions of each organization.

In this regard, an outside official handpicked by the staff of public organizations and quasi-public organizations must join in the board for nomination.

Moreover, the act obliges public organizations to notify a recruitment announcement on a homepage or press in order not to recruit perfunctorily.

Furthermore, an associate professors or a person working for more than five years in an appropriate position or an individual working for more than 20 years and performing as an official for more than three years can be qualified as a non-governmental delegate of a steering committee who would inspect public organizations.

Director general Bae Kook-hwan for Non-Departmental Public Entites` Innovation Bureau of Ministry of Planning and Budget said, “The selection process for public officials will be much more transparent in the near future.”

Yet, with the minister of planning and budget still performing the function as chief of the steering committee, non-governmental members recommended by the minister and then entrusted by the president, some point out that there should be a limit to reforming a custom in which appointment is conducted via direct orders from above.

jarrett@donga.com