'Will take responsibility if there is a problem with legal risk'
Kang Ho-dong, chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, said Friday he would take responsibility if his legal troubles proved to be a problem, but drew a line at resigning from his post.
Speaking at a national audit of the federation by the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, Kang said his legal risk, which has dragged on for more than a year, appeared to have "opened the door to reform at Nonghyup." "I have repeatedly said that if there is a problem on that front, I will take responsibility," he added.
Earlier, a joint government special inspection team announced the results of a special audit of Nonghyup in March and referred Kang and other federation executives to police on charges of embezzlement and accepting bribes.
When Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Shin Jang-sik noted that Kang's secretary and others had been taken into detention on embezzlement charges and asked whether Kang had directed, conspired in or aided those alleged offenses, Kang said he had not.
Shin then asked whether Kang would be willing to resign as chairman and submit to a police investigation as a private citizen. "I cannot agree to that," Kang said.
On the government's push to establish an external oversight body for Nonghyup, Kang said his biggest concern was the potential impact on the federation's autonomy and independence.
Responding to a question from People Power Party lawmaker Kim Yong-tae about the additional cost of setting up such a body, Kang said he had been told it would require between 100 billion and 150 billion won ($111 million) in extra spending. "Audit personnel and IT systems would also have to be built separately," he said.
Kang said he supported introducing direct elections by union members for the Nonghyup chairman, but called for election expenses to be covered.
"I also conveyed the opinion that, given concerns about politicization and government-influenced elections, it would be good to cover campaign costs on a par with publicly funded elections," he said. "If the National Assembly reaches an agreement and completes the process, Nonghyup will play its part accordingly."
oskymoon@heraldcorp.com
