Under pressure from President Lee Myung-bak's administration, CEOs of state-owned enterprises tendered letters of resignation a few months ago. The administration wanted to reward those who had contributed to his election. But the problem is that many CEO posts still remain unfilled.
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Some corporations are represented by acting CEOs and others by the CEOs whose letters of resignation are yet to be dealt with. Why did the Lee administration decide in the first place to dismiss all CEOs of state-owned corporations in one fell swoop if it was not capable of filling the posts as soon as they were vacated?
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The delay in appointments is dealing a blow to those corporations, which are forced to delay their decisions on investments, reorganization, personnel management and other key management issues. Moreover, it will take time until newly appointed CEOs learn enough about their corporations to make those key management decisions.
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In filling the CEO posts, the administration must follow the statutory selection process. But in some cases, the government is suspected of rendering the process perfunctory in an attempt to fill the posts with loyal but unqualified people.
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A case in point is the selection of Jung Yeon-tae -- who was a member of Lee's transition team -- as chairman and CEO of Koscom Corp., a financial IT solution company, on June 20. But he offered to resign on Tuesday because he was unqualified for the job, as he had previously filed for individual insolvency.
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Another problem involves a former three-term lawmaker who has applied for the chairman and CEO post of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund. Rumors have it that the politician, who has no experience of corporate management, is virtually selected already, and that the selection process is nothing but a sham.
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