Approval for Appointment of Private School Executives Embezzling or Breaching Trust Over 10 Million Won to Be Immediately Revoked

Ministry of Education Passes Amendment to Private School Act Enforcement Decree
Lowering Standard to 10% of Revenue-Generating Basic Assets in Cases of Accounting Fraud

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[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] Private school executives who embezzle or breach trust involving amounts exceeding 10 million won can now have their executive appointment approvals revoked without a correction request.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Education announced that the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Private School Act containing this provision was passed at the Cabinet meeting and is scheduled to be promulgated on the 25th. Previously, if facts of breach of trust or embezzlement were revealed, only a warning was issued after a correction request and reimbursement of the embezzled amount. However, going forward, executive appointment approvals can be revoked without such requests. Additionally, when accounting fraud is revealed by a court ruling or an audit by the competent authority, the threshold for revoking executive appointment approvals without a correction request will be lowered from 30% to 10% of the basic property for revenue use. For school corporations of high schools and below, this will be strengthened from 50% to 20% or more.

To strengthen the accountability of school boards, the disclosure period for board meeting minutes, which was previously three months, will be extended to one year. Among the directors of school corporations, at least one-third must have more than three years of educational experience, and the scope of this experience will be specified. This includes experience as kindergarten teachers, elementary and secondary school teachers, industry-academia concurrent instructors, university faculty members, honorary professors, adjunct professors, and invited professors. Going forward, founders and their relatives, executives with experience at the relevant corporation, and those who have served as heads of schools established by the corporation will be excluded from the pool of candidates for outside directors. Furthermore, through amendments to the public notice regarding the disclosure of personal information of school corporation executives, it will be stipulated that the disclosed information must specify whether the executive qualifies as a relative director.