A government audit has found that top officials at South Korea’s National Election Commission (NEC) exploited personal and regional connections to secure jobs for their children and relatives.
The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said on Feb. 3, that senior NEC officials used ties formed while working in local election offices to influence hiring decisions, pressuring or instructing subordinates to recruit their family members. In many cases, junior officials complied with these requests, reinforcing a culture of mutual complicity.
The audit revealed that NEC officials systematically covered up their actions by manipulating files and destroying documents to evade external scrutiny. Some even reassured each other by saying that they were accomplices too, reinforcing a collective sense that they were in the same boat.
In some cases, election commission staff developed an unofficial guide for rigging the hiring process, sharing it among officials from the central office down to regional branches, the audit found.
According to the BAI, former NEC Secretary-General Park Chan-jin began his career at the National Election Commission’s Gwangju branch before rising through the ranks to the top administrative position in the central office.
However, in January 2022, when Park was the deputy secretary-general, the Jeollanam-do Election Commission opened a recruitment process for experienced professionals. Park’s daughter, then an employee at the Nam-gu district office in Gwangju, applied.
During the hiring process, officials at the Jeollanam-do Election Commission allegedly handed interviewers score sheets with blank columns, allowing them to fill in the scores later to ensure preselected candidates, including Park’s daughter, passed.
Officials at the Jeollanam-do office documented these hiring tactics in an internal file and shared it among themselves. When the audit began, they attempted to overwrite incriminating details with unrelated content. Some staff members even told colleagues that they had modified the file too, making them accomplices.
Similarly, former Secretary-General Kim Se-hwan also used his personal connections for nepotistic hiring, the BAI found. Kim started his public service career as a civil servant in Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, before transferring to the local election commission and eventually rising to the central NEC.
In October 2019, when Kim was deputy secretary-general, the central NEC instructed the Incheon Election Commission to conduct a hiring process despite having no staff shortages. Kim’s son, who also started his career as a civil servant in Ganghwa-gun, applied.
The interview panel was exclusively composed of officials who had previously worked with Kim at the Ganghwa and Incheon offices. His son was ultimately hired at the Ganghwa office, but within a year, the NEC waived a five-year transfer restriction, allowing him to move to the Incheon office.
Another example is former Deputy Secretary-General Song Bong-seop, who hailed from Taean, Chungcheongnam-do, and used his influence to help his daughter secure a job.
In 2018, when the Chungcheongbuk-do’s Election Commission was hiring, Song called the office and recommended his daughter, who was working at Boryeong City Hall, describing her as diligent and sincere. The Chungcheongbuk-do’s office then tailored the recruitment process to a non-competitive selection format, effectively making her the sole candidate.
The audit also uncovered additional cases of hiring irregularities. The Seoul Election Commission hired the son of former senior commissioner Shin, even though he failed to meet the eligibility criteria. Meanwhile, the Gyeongsangnam-do Election Commission allegedly rigged interview scores to ensure the daughter of a high-ranking official was hired.
Many of these hiring irregularities had already been reported internally before they were exposed by the media. However, NEC personnel handling personnel matters dismissed the complaints, either covering them up or failing to investigate, as those implicated were often their colleagues or superiors.
The BAI launched an audit in Jun. 2023 and found evidence of widespread corruption in the NEC’s hiring practices. However, senior officials, including the former secretary-general and deputy secretary-general, denied wrongdoing. Some claimed they had made inquiries about job openings but had not exerted direct influence, while staff members also refused to acknowledge they had received hiring requests.
