FSS’ dereliction of duty

The Financial Supervisory Service is a workplace everyone envies. But citizens are fuming over the latest news that executives and ordinary employees of the government’s financial watchdog still receive their severance pay after having been arrested for involvement in corruption at savings banks.

FSS workers enjoy three privileges: a high annual salary; exclusive power over financial companies; and a guarantee of a comfortable life after retirement. We are dumbfounded that they can get their full severance pay no matter what.

Government employees have their severance pay cut in half when they engage in illegitimate acts like taking bribes. That’s why they are required to have better ethics and morality than ordinary workers.

The employees of the FSS have a much more significant role than other government workers. In previous cases, however, we have clearly witnessed what kind of disaster could take place when they give up their responsibility to oversee various forms of corruption within the financial industry.

Major shareholders and managers of savings banks have turned out to have squandered customer deposits for their private interest, causing innocent people a colossal amount of damage.

So far, the FSS has taken advantage of its privileges as a supervisory arm of the government. But it has never come under scrutiny for its shady performance, based on the pretext of political independence and autonomy as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Its image as a professional auditory body, however, was shattered when its collusion with financial companies it was supposed to have monitored came to light. Some FSS employees even tried to teach banking companies how to get away with breaking the law.

Regardless of the public outrage over their violation of the ethics code, however, FSS employees will still get their severance pay. It’s as if nothing happened.

The government must no longer allow the FSS to take advantage of its peculiar status as a semi-governmental organization. It is absolutely absurd for the FSS to continue wielding power over financial companies while taking no responsibility for its own wrongdoing.

The FSS officials in question should be dealt stringent punishments commensurate with their actions and the organization’s status. The tremendous amount of damage caused by the financial watchdog’s dereliction of duty should be put to an end no matter what.