Gov`t Committee Asks 17 Public CEOs to Resign

The Steering Committee of State-run Organizations under the Strategy and Finance Ministry has asked 17 public CEOs to resign based on an evaluation of how the heads of public agencies have kept their management proposals.

At the government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, yesterday, the committee evaluated the performance of 92 public CEOs with terms of more than six months as of late March among 117 who suggested management proposals. Twenty-three percent were asked to resign or received warnings.

The ministry plans to ask President Lee Myung-bak and Cabinet ministers to dismiss four heads who received a poor grade. The four are expected to be fired since they promised to put up with any hardship, including resignation, if judged to have had a poor performance when they handed in management proposals.

Among 64 heads who received an average grade, 17 whose score stayed between 50 and 60 received warnings. If the 17 get another warning next year, they will be asked to resign.

Twenty-four heads including Korea Water Resources Corp. President Kim Geon-ho and Korea Minting & Security Printing Corp President Jeon Yong-hak received a “good” grade, but none earned the highest rating of excellent.

The evaluation was conducted by a team of 45 non-governmental experts including professors, lawyers and accountants. Led by Korea University economics professor Lee Man-woo, the study divided performance into four grades of “excellent (above 90 out of 100 points),” “good (71-89),” “average (61-69),” and “poor (under 50).”

The government also released its evaluation of 24 state-run corporations and 76 quasi-government agencies consisting of six grades. Eighteen organizations including the Korea Water Resources Corp., the Korea Electric Power Corp., and the Korea Resources Corp. received the second-highest grade of “A” and the Korean Film Council received the lowest grade of ”E.” No organization earned the highest grade of “S.”

Strategy and Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said, “I hope the heads of state-run organizations take the evaluation as a chance to understand the government’s strong will to advance state-run organizations. They should understand that the evaluation is just the first step and strongly pursue reform."

cha@donga.com