At Koica, one manager had his hand in employees' pockets

Social Affairs

At Koica, one manager had his hand in employees' pockets

Published: 06 Dec. 2022, 16:44

Korea International Cooperation Agency

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) revealed Tuesday that a former executive director of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica) is suspected of taking 385 million won ($291,577) in bribes from employees in exchange for promotions and other favors.

The BAI alleges that the man took money from 22 people while he was in charge of human resources from February 2018 to December 2020. That job allowed him to exercise authority over personnel appointments and contracts at Koica.

The BAI said it referred the case to prosecutors, and identified 15 individuals who allegedly paid him large bribes.

The other seven individuals gave relatively small amounts of cash — less than 5 million won — so the BAI is not requesting their prosecution.

The former executive director is accused of fabricating employee performance evaluations for promotions and giving them choice overseas assignments.

The BAI also allege that he had took 10 million won from a university professor in April 2020 to pay his children's tuition and appointed the professor to an executive position a few months later.

He also allegedly took 25 million won from a manager who was not included on a list of candidates for promotion and manipulated this staffer's performance evaluation, which resulted in a promotion. He allegedly took 87 million won from six employees in return for choice overseas assignments.

In March 2022, the BAI conducted an internal probe after allegations that there had been financial transactions between the former Koica executive director and employees in 2020.

Koica later dismissed the director without any further legal action.

The BAI said its request for a prosecution investigation "is a measure to raise awareness among employees of public institutions by swiftly revealing the facts of serious misconduct."

In a statement Tuesday, Koica said it "sincerely apologized" to the public.

However, it said that that several Koica employees accused of bribery had actually been trying to help the former executive director, who claimed he was suffering from "economic difficulties."

The payments were loans, these employees claimed, and they are currently involved in civil and criminal lawsuits against the former executive director, some claiming fraud.

Koica, founded in 1991, is the government agency responsible for Korea’s aid programs for developing countries.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]