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An extraordinary candidate for the job

Published: 16 May. 2024, 19:38

Oh Dong-woon, the nominee to head the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), awaits tough scrutiny over family issues ahead of his confirmation hearing. His wife received 54 million won ($39,560) for working as a driver for 22 months at the law firm he worked for. Two years later, she was recruited as an assistant for a field job for the same annual salary.

Oh claimed she was hired on a formal employment contract. But the opposition Democratic Party (DP) suspects the hire was faked to dodge taxes. The DP wonders how a wife of the law firm lawyer and a former judge could work as a driver.

Oh’s eldest daughter, at the age of 20, was also found to have purchased 60.5 square meters (651 square feet) of land in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, which was designated for redevelopment in 2020, from her mother at the cheap price of 420 million won. Oh claimed his daughter was gifted with 350 million won, including tax payment, and took out a loan to pay the rest. But his reasoning is beyond the common people’s understanding.

Illegalities by deeds related to the nominee’s wife and daughter are yet to be confirmed, but they suggest some motives to save taxes.

The head of the extraordinary law enforcement agency should command investigations on wrongdoings of senior government officials. Higher morality and cleanness are demanded of the candidate, because its investigation subjects include prosecutors, judges, generals and high-level civil servants. A person with such a questionable past cannot go after other government employees.

The role of the head of CIO is very important, as the government and the People Power Party want to first see the results of its investigations into the government’s alleged pressure on the Marine Corps’ investigation of the suspicious death of a Marine on a rescue mission, particularly after the DP pushed for a special counsel probe. Oh was named 98 days after the first CIO head Kim Jin-wook resigned and has the responsibility to restore order in the institution following a more than three-month vacuum of the chief and his deputy prosecutors.

As a judge, Oh was suspected of donating 3 million won to a lawmaker of then-governing party in 2004. In the occupation section, he wrote “self-employed.” Since political neutrality is absolute for the CIO chief, his past deed calls for scrutiny on whether he had violated the Public Employees Act for participating in politics as a judge.

Oh must be able to clarify his past and the allegations related to his family at the confirmation hearing on Friday. If he cannot convince the people, it is better for him to resign from his candidacy.