After the launch of the 9th popularly elected Gyeongsangnam-do Provincial Government, the personnel verification of candidates for appointment as heads of participating institutions enters the 'second round'.
According to the Gyeongsangnam-do Provincial Council on the 8th, a personnel hearing will be held for four candidates for appointment as heads of contributing institutions during the 438th regular session, which opened on the 3rd and continues for 43 days until the 15th of next month.
Following the personnel hearing for the appointment candidates for the appointment of the director of the Gyeongnam Robot Land Foundation and the chairman of the Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation at the extraordinary meeting in September, the personnel verification of Park Wan-soo's second term as provincial government will continue.
Four candidates for appointment as heads of institutions, including the director of Gyeongnam Techno Park, the director of the Gyeongnam Culture and Arts Promotion Agency, the director of the Gyeongnam Investment and Economic Promotion Agency, and the chairman of the Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation, who went through the public offering process between the end of August and the end of October, are subject to personnel hearings during this regular meeting.
Last month, the province appointed Jo Bo-hyun, chairman of the Gyeongnam Arts Foundation, as a candidate for the appointment of the director of the Gyeongnam Culture and Arts Promotion Agency, and Lee Jeong-hwan, former director of the Korea Institute of Materials Science, as a candidate for the Gyeongnam Techno Park appointment, and requested a personnel hearing from the provincial council earlier this month.
The Provincial Council's Culture and Welfare Committee is reviewing candidate Cho Bo-hyun's confirmation hearing on the 16th, and the Economic and Environment Committee is reviewing candidate Lee Jeong-hwan's confirmation hearing on the 23rd.
The candidates for the appointment of the director of the Gyeongnam Investment and Economic Promotion Agency and the chairman of the Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation have not been decided, so the province has not yet requested a personnel hearing.
A provincial official explained, “We are carrying out the last-minute contest process with the goal of completing personnel hearings for all participating organizations with vacant director positions during this regular meeting.”
The personnel hearing for the 13th Provincial Council, which was launched along with the 9th popular election, has become more rigorous than in the past, so candidates facing the second round of personnel verification appear to be nervous.
The Provincial Council's Economic and Environment Committee ruled that Park Wan-soo, the first personnel verifier for the second term of the provincial administration, was unsuitable during the personnel hearing for the candidate for appointment as Chairman of the Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation, Lee Hyo-geun, during an extraordinary meeting in September.
For the first time since Gyeongsangnam-do and the Provincial Council signed a personnel verification agreement for heads of funded organizations in 2018, a candidate for appointment failed to pass the personnel hearing process.
Members of the Economic and Environment Committee pointed out that candidate Lee Hyo-geun failed to provide sufficient and clear answers to the foundation's status and problems during the personnel hearing, even though he served as the immediate past chairman of the Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation for more than three years.
In the end, the province had to re-open the nomination for the chairman of the Credit Guarantee Foundation.
Kim Soon-taek, chairman of the Provincial Council's Culture and Welfare Committee, said, "We have requested a lot of information about Candidate Cho, and the committee members are also very eager to conduct a thorough personnel verification," and added, "We will conduct thorough verification focusing on professionalism, leadership, and morality."
Kim Gu-yeon, Chairman of the Economic and Environment Committee, said, “Although we are busy with administrative audits, we will make sufficient preparations so as not to neglect personnel verification.”
The Provincial Council is receiving reports from residents to check whether there are any qualifications, flaws, or illegalities regarding candidates for the appointment of the director of the Gyeongnam Culture and Arts Promotion Agency and the director of the Gyeongnam Techno Park.
The Provincial Council's personnel hearing ordinance stipulates that among the 17 public enterprises and investment-invested institutions under the province, Gyeongnam Development Corporation, Gyeongnam Research Institute, Gyeongnam Techno Park, Gyeongnam Culture and Arts Promotion Agency, Gyeongnam Robot Land Foundation, Gyeongnam Investment and Economic Promotion Agency, Gyeongnam Credit Guarantee Foundation, Gyeongnam Talent Lifelong Education Center, and Gyeongnam Tourism Foundation with a quota of 100 or more or an annual budget exceeding 30 billion won are subject to personnel hearings. It is defined as an institution.
