Presidential office to lead in correcting public institutions’ poor management

The Presidential Office, reportedly, has been developing fundamental measures to correct the negligent management of public institutions, including excessive welfare benefits for their employees. This is likely to become the first subject of the reform project to normalize abnormal past practices, which is to be embarked on right after the president’s trip to West Europe next month.

The president said at the meeting of senior presidential secretaries on Thursday, “Public institutions’ negligent management and budget wasting are chronic issues being repeated every year,” especially ordering to “make and report innovative measures that can root out (such bad practices) in order not to get the same comments again in the parliamentary inspection.”

An official from the presidential office said, “Although public institution employees receive wages similar to those of public servants, they get much more welfare benefits than public servants,” pointing out, “The preferentially-appointed heads of public institutions raise benefits for employees in exchange for getting implicit approval on their appointment from the union. As such a practice is repeated, the welfare benefits go excessive and resulting losses are born by the people in the end.”

The presidential office has been collecting such cases of excessive welfare benefits in public institutions pointed out by standing committees during the parliamentary inspection. The case in point is the “employment succession,” in which children of existing employees are given preference over others in employment. The parliamentary inspection found out that 76 public institutions apply this provision not just to their collective agreements but to their internal HR rules.

An official from the presidential office said, “The overall repetitive comments from parliamentary inspection, including unreasonable severance pay, allowances for the tuition of children, expedient loans for housing or living expenses, provision of employment after retirement as well as employment succession, are under review,” adding, “Abnormal past practices will be corrected as the appointment of the heads of public institutions are being finalized.”

Among the presidential office’s concerns is that it is difficult for the government to intervene in the labor and management agreement of public institutions. In particular, welfare benefits expanded through a dual contract can hardly be detected. Reportedly, the presidential office is reviewing measures in a multi-faceted way, including correcting internal HR rules or strengthening audit of public institutions, if necessary when seen from the people’s perspective. In the case of “employment succession,” even if it is a matter of the labor and management agreement, the presidential office expects there would be a way to prevent it through internal HR rules for government-budgeted institutions. The office is resolute in correcting the negligent management of public institutions despite increasing debts. Such an active move is partly to justify increasing public utility charges such as electric charges and grow public sentiment in favor of the government.

Another official from the presidential office emphasized that “an ambitious plan of reforming public institutions has been tried by every administration at the beginning, but always fizzled out in the end, but it would be successful this time as the president has a strong willingness to do so,” adding, “Many public institutions are not making sufficient efforts despite increasing deficits and debts.”