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| Then senior presidential secretary for economic affairs Hong Jang-pyo speaks during a press conference about household income trends at Cheong Wa Dae in this 2018 file photo. Korea Times file |
By Lee Hae-rin
The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) plans to investigate two more high-ranking officials of the previous Moon Jae-in administration to find out if they were involved in the rigging of major data.
The two officials, former senior secretary on economic affairs Hong Jang-pyo and former secretary for job creation Hwang Deok-soon, were the key figures behind the Moon government's signature economic policy, the so-called income-led economic growth.
Earlier, the state auditor investigated Moon administration officials ― former Statistics Korea heads Kang Shin-wook and Hwang Soo-kyung as well as some other officials ― on allegations that they were involved in the fabrication of data on income, employment and housing prices.
In May 2018, Statistics Korea announced that the Moon government's income-led growth policy led to a decline in low-earning groups' income and widened the income gap between the haves and have-nots during the first quarter of that year. Cheong Wa Dae challenged the announcement, and Hwang was sacked from her position at Statistics Korea in August, within 13 months of her nomination.
Kang Shin-wook, who was then working at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and produced a report criticizing Statistics Korea's research methodology, was appointed as the next commissioner. During her farewell ceremony, Hwang remarked that "statistics should not be politicized."
Kang later faced allegations that he had changed Statistics Korea's research methodology to yield results indicating improved distribution indicators.
The BAI also plans to investigate high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport as it found circumstances of the ministry's alleged involvement in data fabrication.
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| Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong answers reporters' questions after a ceremony for the construction of the Gimpo-Paju Han River tunnel in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Dec. 13. Yonhap |
Land Minister Won Hee-ryong said his ministry will "fully cooperate with the investigators to help them find the truth."
"If the Moon government fabricated real estate-related data for its own sake, this is the mismanagement of the government," Won said. "During the last five years of the Moon government, the entire nation was victimized by the misguided real estate policy. Despite this, the Moon government deceived the nation with unrealistic data."
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) claimed that the Moon government fabricated state data, if found to be true, would be a "major crime."
"You should not lie with numbers," PPP spokesperson Park Jeong-ha said in a statement released on Sunday, "Manipulating Statistics Korea under the fear that their economic policy is nothing more than a fantasy fiction ― that is a major crime that undermines the nation."
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), meanwhile, claimed that the BAI has launched a politically motivated investigation.
DPK spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said, "The BAI has been leading political retaliations and suppressing the opposition party since the Yoon administration kicked in," referring to the BAI's recent request to investigate former government officials regarding the Moon administration's handling of a slain South Korean fisheries official who was killed by the North Korean soldiers near the maritime border in the West Sea.
If anyone is found to have been involved in data rigging, they can be punished with up to three years in jail or fined up to 30 million won ($23,000). The investigation results are expected to be unveiled by early next year.
