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NEC chairman apologizes for nepotism, promises agency reform

Published: 05 Mar. 2025, 17:05 Updated: 05 Mar. 2025, 18:54

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Rho Tae-ak, a commissioner of the National Election Commission (NEC), center, walks inside NEC headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi on March 5. [YONHAP]

Rho Tae-ak, chairman of the National Election Commission (NEC), on Wednesday apologized for the agency's nepotistic hiring practices and promised to reform employment protocols.

Rho’s written apology came six days after the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea (BAI) revealed that his commission and regional branches violated hiring protocols 878 times between 2013 and 2022 by giving preference to the children and acquaintances of NEC high-ranking officials.

Roh vowed to “sternly punish” NEC officials who were involved in the nepotistic hiring practices. The NEC’s disciplinary committee will hand down the penalty in consideration of its internal guidelines and the BAI’s advice on the proper degree of penalization, said Roh.

Roh said he is aware of “dwindling public trust toward the NEC.” He added he knows that distrust in the NEC’s organizational management could undermine credibility in the election process.

The chief of the NEC also promised to “improve its hiring procedures and rules until people are satisfied with them,” which includes the agency's systems for external control and oversight.

“The NEC will make every effort to get rid of its irregularities and to earn public trust again while not defending itself with an excuse of being independent as a constitutional institution,” Roh said in his apology.

Roh’s remarks appeared to address concerns arising from a Constitutional Court verdict handed down last Thursday, which ruled that the NEC is not bound by the BAI audit. The court saw the NEC as an “independent organization separate from the government” such as the parliament, adding that the BAI only holds oversight authority over administrative agencies.

A day earlier, the NEC also issued its apology and statement, which mentioned the agency receiving parliamentary supervision and inspections.

The conservative People Power Party said it will push for a bill to appoint a special auditor who oversees the NEC. The liberal Democratic Party’s senior spokesperson Jo Seoung-lae said on Tuesday that his party would “devise effective measures enabling parliamentary oversight” of the NEC so the election commission could restore public trust.

On Wednesday, the NEC said it suspended 10 employees, who are children of the commission’s senior officials and also reportedly benefitted by preferential hiring, from their duties. The suspension will be effective starting Thursday. The NEC explained that the suspension has been put in place considering “public sentiment” although they were not included as being subject to disciplinary action or penalties from the BAI audit.

Update, March 5: Added suspension penalty given to 10 NEC employees.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]