South Korea's Election Commission suspends 10 illegally hired officials, begins disciplinary procedures

On the 5th, the National Election Commission of Korea began disciplinary procedures against 18 people involved in the fraudulent hiring. On the same day, the commission announced that it had suspended 10 employees who were hired through preferential treatment as of March 6th.
The company said it took such measures after it became clear that the employees who had been hired were continuing to work as normal even after suspicions of fraudulent hiring had surfaced, raising concerns about the situation.
Prior to this, the Board of Audit had requested disciplinary action against the executives and personnel involved in the hiring process, but the committee's request included disciplinary action against the employees who had been hired.
The committee explained that "it would not be in keeping with the public's eyes to allow them to continue working, so we removed them from their duties as a practical measure."
The committee also requested the disciplinary committee to take disciplinary action against the 17 officials involved in the irregular hiring that the BAI had requested disciplinary action against. One of the 10 officials for whom the BAI initially requested disciplinary action was from the National Election Commission.
The Election Management Committee's investigation confirmed the hiring issue and referred the matter to the Disciplinary Committee.
The issue of illegal hiring of children of high-ranking officials, including the former Deputy Secretary-General, came to light, and the Board of Audit and Inspection conducted an audit. The audit revealed that personnel officers at the Election Management Commission had engaged in various illegal and fraudulent means to hire their clients.
Specifically, they appointed the children of election commissioners without publicly advertising the positions, placed close internal staff on the exam committee, and manipulated and altered interview scores.
In a written apology to the public on the same day, Roh Tae-ak, chairman of the National Election Commission, said, "We apologize to the employees who handled their duties improperly in relation to the preferential hiring issue.
"We have requested disciplinary action from the disciplinary committee in regards to these matters," the board said, adding, "We plan to take strict measures taking into consideration the level of disciplinary action requested by the BAI and the Election Management Commission's internal standards."