![The National Election Commission headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, is seen Monday. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/22/rcv.YNA.20260622.PYH2026062207570001300_P1.jpg)
Courts have successively overturned disciplinary actions against National Election Commission employees who were reprimanded following a Board of Audit and Inspection probe that uncovered hiring irregularities. The rulings rest on the Constitutional Court's finding that the audit body's inspection of the NEC was unconstitutional.
The Seoul Administrative Court's Third Administrative Division, presided over by Judge Ho Seong-ho, ruled in favor of an NEC employee identified only as A in a first-instance suit seeking to nullify a reprimand issued against him by the NEC secretary-general, according to Yonhap News Agency and other outlets Monday.
The Board of Audit and Inspection launched its investigation into the NEC in September 2023, after allegations surfaced that senior NEC officials had arranged preferential hiring for their children.
The final audit results, released in February last year, found that A had unlawfully appointed two candidates in October 2021 during a career-track recruitment process — candidates who lacked eligibility because they had not obtained transfer consent from their original agencies.
Acting on the audit body's disciplinary recommendation, the NEC voted to impose discipline in March last year and issued the formal reprimand in April.
A filed an administrative lawsuit, arguing that the disciplinary decision had been made after the three-year statute of limitations had already expired. Under the State Public Officials Act, the general statute of limitations for disciplinary proceedings is three years, though the clock is suspended while a Board of Audit and Inspection probe or criminal investigation is ongoing.
The court found that because the audit itself was unlawful, the audit body's notification of the investigation's commencement could not be treated as grounds for suspending the statute of limitations. The NEC had challenged the audit by filing a competence dispute with the Constitutional Court, which ruled in the NEC's favor on Feb. 27 last year — two days after the audit body published its final findings.
![The National Election Commission headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, is seen Monday. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/22/rcv.YNA.20260622.PYH2026062207440001300_P1.jpg)
In that ruling, the Constitutional Court held that "the NEC has the right to independently carry out election administration, personnel affairs and other duties without undue interference from external bodies," and that the Board of Audit and Inspection "cannot be regarded as having been granted authority to conduct job-performance inspections of the NEC."
The court ruled the disciplinary action unlawful, saying the audit body's notification of investigation commencement "does not carry the legal effect of suspending disciplinary proceedings, as it concerns NEC civil servants who fall outside the scope of the audit body's job-performance inspection authority."
The court added that while the NEC would have faced practical difficulties in pursuing its own disciplinary process after declaring it would accept the audit, that circumstance "cannot be assessed as constituting legitimate grounds to set aside the statute of limitations and require the employee to bear the resulting disadvantage."
The court also cited the NEC's failure to conduct its own internal audit as a basis for finding the disciplinary action unlawful. The commission had relied solely on the Board of Audit and Inspection's findings rather than carrying out an independent review.
"The NEC had originally planned to conduct its own special audit into the corruption allegations, but abandoned any separate audit or disciplinary process after agreeing to accept the external inspection," the court said.
The NEC has appealed the ruling, and the case is now before the Seoul High Court.
Meanwhile, independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon on Monday introduced a bill to amend the Board of Audit and Inspection Act that would bring the NEC within the audit body's job-performance inspection authority. The proposed amendment would establish a legal basis for including the duties of the NEC and its subordinate commissions at all levels — as well as the work of their civil servants — within the scope of the audit body's inspections.
dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com
