The “Family Company” National Election Commission Is Reform Priority No. 1

Nepotism Runs Rampant Where There Is No Fear of Being Forced Out

Independence Is a Device to Block Improper External Interference

What We Urgently Need Is Monitoring and Control to Root Out Internal Corruption

When I first saw the headline, “Hiring Relatives Is a Tradition,” I thought it was about some private company. But it was about the National Election Commission. It is astonishing that a government agency would see itself like a company, and calling it a family business is simply absurd.

According to data recently released by the Board of Audit and Inspection, the National Election Commission committed 878 violations in 291 career-track hiring cases over the past 10 years. These were not simple mistakes, but systematic and organized misconduct. In particular, actions that seriously undermined fairness occurred repeatedly, such as preselecting employees’ children or appointing internal personnel as examiners to manipulate interview scores in favor of those children. The National Election Commission ignored tips and reports of hiring corruption, saying things like, “We are a family company,” or “There is a tradition of hiring relatives.” Once the audit began, it tried to evade responsibility by destroying related materials and pressuring people to give false statements.

As an independent constitutional institution, the National Election Commission has a duty to guarantee fair and transparent election administration. But the corruption and misconduct recently exposed are far from that ideal. This is a classic case of cronyism: using personal ties such as blood relations, regional ties, and school ties in personnel decisions and policymaking rather than individual ability or qualifications. Cronyism is a cancer eating away at our society. It is a disease that must be cured.

Cronyism flourishes where there is no competition and no threat of exit. Private companies are exposed to the market pressures of competition and elimination. Their survival depends on whether they succeed or fail in satisfying consumers. If they succeed, they are rewarded with profit and can continue to survive and grow. But if they fail to satisfy consumers, they are punished with losses and driven out of the market. Because of this threat of exit, private companies strive to hire people with ability and qualifications, not those with family, regional, or school connections, and to manage them efficiently.

Government agencies, however, unlike private companies, are not subject to the market pressures of competition and elimination. The absence of such pressures creates a serious moral hazard problem. Because government agencies are run on taxpayers’ money, the people are the true owners of those agencies, and the bureaucrats who manage them are the people’s agents. There is a very high likelihood of moral hazard—namely, a principal-agent problem—in which bureaucrats who face no competitive pressure or threat of removal work for their own interests rather than for the people they are supposed to serve. The misconduct and corruption arising from the National Election Commission’s cronyism in this case are the ultimate example of the principal-agent problem.

The system devised to solve the principal-agent problem that can arise in government agencies is audit and oversight. Through audit and oversight, the operation of government agencies can be made transparent, helping prevent corruption and misconduct, while increasing accountability for their work and decisions so as to address problems caused by moral hazard. Audit and oversight can also increase public trust in government by demonstrating that government operations are being conducted fairly and properly.

Nevertheless, the Constitutional Court has now ruled that the National Election Commission is not subject to audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection, effectively granting it immunity. Of course, the Court’s decision can be interpreted as emphasizing the Commission’s independence. But independence exists to block improper external interference, not to serve as a shield that turns a blind eye to internal misconduct and corruption. The Constitutional Court’s decision to leave the National Election Commission as an untouchable sanctuary has a serious flaw and even calls into question the reason for its own existence.

Power that is not subject to checks and control inevitably becomes corrupt. Now I think I understand why the National Election Commission has been run like a “family company,” why corruption has become so widespread, why during a presidential election ballot papers were carried in baskets, why even pre-marked ballots were delivered to voters, and why it failed to notice at all that it had been hacked by North Korea. Corruption and misconduct in government agencies are serious problems that shake the foundations of the state. If such problems continue, laws and institutions can be rendered powerless and the functions of the state can be paralyzed. The consequences could become grave enough to threaten the very existence of the nation.

The corruption and cronyism at the National Election Commission are not merely the problem of one institution. They must be recognized as a problem for our society as a whole. While preserving the Commission’s independence, we must strengthen institutions so that external monitoring and checks are still possible. A system must be put in place to monitor corruption and misconduct at the National Election Commission and to impose strong sanctions for illegal acts.

Jaewook Ahn, Chairman, Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: ‘가족회사 선관위’는 개혁 영순위다

Author: Jae-uk Ahn

Date: 2025-03-09

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=press&idx=27393