Gov't to seek dismissal of heads of 2 public firms following review

Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol speaks during a meeting in Seoul on Friday. (Yonhap)

South Korea will seek to replace the heads of two public institutions following a regular performance review while issuing warnings to those whose organizations experienced fatal workplace accidents, the finance ministry said Friday.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy decided to seek the removal of the heads of the Government Employees Pension Service and the Korea International Cooperation Agency, based on the evaluations made by the Ownership Steering Committee, tasked with assessing the performance of public institutions.

The committee reviewed the performance of 88 state-run firms and assessed how 82 agency heads fulfilled their management contracts.

Among those checked, seven received the lowest grade under the six-tier evaluation system for the performance. The remaining five were not subject to dismissal recommendations as they were not in office during the evaluation period.

The finance ministry also decided to issue warnings to 17 agency heads who received a D grade, including those at the National Institute of Ecology, Grand Korea Leisure Co. and the Postal Savings & Insurance Development Institute.

In a separate measure, the government also issued warnings to the heads of 11 organizations that experienced fatal workplace accidents during their term, including the Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Gas Corp.

In the institutional evaluation, 15 organizations received an A grade, while 29, 28 and 13 earned grades of B, C and D, respectively.

Three, namely the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corp., Korea National Park Service and KOICA, received the lowest grade of E, and none earned the top S grade under the six-tier evaluation system.

The finance ministry said the evaluation focused on social responsibility in areas such as safety and green initiatives, as well as financial health and productivity.

It added that organizations that faithfully utilized artificial intelligence technologies to drive innovation were given favorable consideration. (Yonhap)