Rule Toughens for Officials Moving to Private Sector

If an administrative official higher than grade four moves to the private sector, he or she must wait two years before entering a company in a field where he or she worked for five years.

The Public Administration and Security Ministry said yesterday that it will propose a revision bill to the Act on Government Official Ethics to extend the period from three to five years.

Officials must receive confirmation or approval from the Government Employees Ethics Committee when they exceed a certain salary level, even if they move to companies or organizations with under five billion won in capital and 15 billion won in annual revenues.

When judges, prosecutors and high-ranking officials enter law or accounting firms after retirement for a certain level of salary, they must receive approval from the ethics committee if they move to related companies. If not, they need confirmation.

A survey of 11,405 government employees higher than grade four in the central and provincial governments and education offices who retired over the last three years showed 17.9 percent or 2,037 people moved to the private sector.

Among them, 11.7 percent or 238 people went to limited companies but the rest of 1,799 got employed by companies in fields unrelated to their government work. Among the 238, 153 received either approval or confirmation but 80 did not undergo this process.

pen@donga.com