Thorough Investigation to be Conducted to Ensure Fairness in 2023 Hiring Processes of 1,386 Public Organizations

- Investigations to be carried out in collaboration with 228 supervisory agencies, including central administrative agencies and local governments

- Public service-related organizations’ compliance with external interviewer ratio and preferential hiring and requiring job applicants to bear expenses for hiring examinations, etc. to be inspected

(24^th January 2024, ACRC)

Joint government investigations will be carried out into hiring processes of employees newly hired over the last year by 1,386 public service-related organizations. This time, in particular, whether public organizations have passed on hiring examination expenses to the job applicants will be also investigated.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Yoo Cheol-hwan) carries out fact-finding investigations into hiring processes of public service-related organizations for 2024, in conjunction with a total of 228 supervisory agencies, including 40 central administrative agencies, such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Interior and Safety, and 180 local governments, such as Seoul Metropolitan City.

The ACRC this year conducts direct field investigations of 23 organizations that have been in blind spots of investigation without designated supervisory agencies having clear audit authority and thus treated as if they were private organizations.

This time, the ACRC will investigate into whether 1,396 public service-related organizations have complied with laws and regulations, upper guidelines, and their internal regulations in conducting new hiring procedures over the past year.

This year, a new item, such as public service-related organizations’ compliance with the Fair Hiring Procedure Act that falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Employment and Labor that sets forth prohibition on requiring job applicants to bear hiring examination expenses, etc. is added to the contents of investigation.

Following completion of investigations, the ACRC plans to take stern measures such as requesting further investigation by prosecution or disciplinary actions against those involved in hiring irregularities, and if there are victims from hiring irregularities, active remedies including granting opportunities for hiring re-examinations will be offered.

The ACRC has been providing “consulting on public organizations’ bylaws related to hiring procedures” to analyze internal hiring rules of each organization to find any violations or omissions of upper guidelines for fair hiring and issue recommendations for improvements.

This year, local public service-related organizations that received warnings many times during investigation conducted last year will be subject to the ACRC’s consulting. More specifically, bylaws of 415 local public corporations and local government-funded organizations relatively vulnerable to hiring irregularities will be subject to intensive analysis for improvements.

The ACRC handles reported cases of hiring irregularities other than conducting investigations on a regular basis, and anyone who identifies hiring irregularities can file a report via Clean Portal at www.clean.go.kr, mail or in person.

The ACRC Chairperson and Secretary-General Jeong Seung-yoon stated, “the Transparency and fairness in employment in the public sector are the building blocks for the youth, who take their first steps into society, to develop their sense of fairness as future public officials,” adding that “the ACRC will continue to make even greater efforts to ensure fairness in employment in the public sector.”