A former deputy mayor of Incheon has been found to have improperly intervened in the hiring of a secretary-general at the Incheon Metropolitan City Senior Human Resources Development Center, a city-affiliated public institution.
The Board of Audit and Inspection determined the conduct violated the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act and called on Incheon to notify the competent court so that the former official may face a fine through trial proceedings.
According to audit results released Wednesday, the former deputy mayor, identified only as A, received a request in April 2023 from an acquaintance he had met through volunteer work, asking to be informed of any good job openings.
A then passed along advance notice of the secretary-general vacancy at the Senior Human Resources Development Center and, before the position was publicly posted, recommended the acquaintance to the center's director on May 15, 2023, asking that the candidate's qualifications be reviewed.
The center director reported back the following day, May 16, that the applicant's social welfare work experience totaled only nine years and one month — falling short of the 10-year minimum required for the post.
Despite that finding, A again pressed the director to "take good care of someone I know well," the audit confirmed.
The center director then instructed the document screening officer to count all experience, including work whose assigned duties were unclear and would otherwise have been disqualified. The applicant ultimately passed the final selection in June 2023 and was appointed secretary-general.
The job posting had explicitly stated that only experience listed on employment certificates with both the period of service and specific duties clearly specified would be recognized, and that experience with unclear duties would not count.
The Board of Audit and Inspection ruled the conduct violated the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, which prohibits public officials from intervening in hiring decisions, and called on the Incheon mayor to notify the court with jurisdiction over fine proceedings of the former deputy mayor's misconduct.
The audit findings effectively corroborate the hiring irregularity allegations raised over the preceding two years.
The Herald Business first reported in July 2024 that the secretary-general's social welfare experience appeared to fall short of the hiring criteria, prompting Incheon city's audit office to launch an investigation.
In November of that year, follow-up reports detailed that an unqualified applicant had been hired based on the audit findings, and that a victim had filed a petition with the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission seeking relief.
The commission subsequently referred evidence of the hiring irregularities to police and the Board of Audit and Inspection. The board audited Incheon city and the Senior Human Resources Development Center last year, while police have been conducting a separate investigation into the hiring allegations.
The reporter who wrote the three consecutive stories on the secretary-general's allegedly improper hiring was sued last April by the secretary-general on charges of defamation and spreading false information under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. The reporter was subsequently cleared of all charges.
With the Board of Audit and Inspection's ruling now officially confirming that a senior Incheon city official directly exercised influence over the hiring process — rather than a mere procedural lapse — accountability for the broader hiring process and follow-up action appear unavoidable.
gilbert@heraldcorp.com
