Two personnel officials at the Gyeongsangnam-do Election Commission have been indicted for manipulating the interview scores of applicants during a recruitment process for experienced professionals.
It was discovered that they intentionally failed two successful female candidates under the pretext of adjusting the gender ratio and raised the scores of two male candidates who had originally failed, allowing them to be hired instead.
The Changwon District Prosecutors Office announced that it has indicted the two officials—a department head in his 50s and a section chief in his 40s in charge of personnel at the Gyeongsangnam-do Election Commission—without detention on charges including violation of the State Public Officials Act, obstruction of official business by deception, and the creation and use of false official documents.
They are accused of arbitrarily selecting five successful candidates regardless of the final evaluation results from four interviewers during the 5th open competitive recruitment for grade 8 and below positions, held in July and August 2021.
At the time, 23 local government officials applied for the positions, and 18 candidates who passed the document screening underwent interviews.
When all five final successful candidates were determined to be women based on the interview results, the officials reportedly manipulated the scores, claiming that they needed to adjust the gender ratio.
Taking advantage of the fact that the interviewers had initially written down the applicants' scores in pencil, they erased the scores of two female candidates to lower them and increased the scores of two male candidates who had failed, effectively rigging the results.
Afterward, they even drafted an official document for the selection of successful candidates as if the process had been conducted normally based on the manipulated results.
Their misconduct was uncovered during an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection in the second half of 2023.
Upon being notified of the results, the Gyeongsangnam-do Election Commission took disciplinary action against the two officials in April of last year.
Following this incident, the Election Commission completely abolished its open competitive recruitment system for local government officials.
It has been confirmed that the two men who were hired after their scores were artificially inflated are currently working at the Gyeongsangnam-do Election Commission.
An official from the Gyeongsangnam-do Election Commission stated, "Because the original agencies of two of the five final female candidates did not consent to their transfer to the Election Commission, a total of three people—one woman and two men—were ultimately hired at the time," adding, "We plan to take measures regarding those employees based on the final court ruling."
Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Choi Gang-san | Graphics by Lee Su-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
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