Suspicion of Special Hiring by Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon
Five Specially Hired, Including Four Former Kyojo Members Who Retired in 2018 for Violating the Public Official Election Act
[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Division (PCC) investigating Seoul Superintendent of Education Cho Hee-yeon’s alleged “unfair special hiring of dismissed teachers” as the “No. 1 case” conducted its first forced search on the 18th by raiding the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.
The PCC’s Investigation Division 2 (Chief Prosecutor Kim Seong-moon) sent prosecutors and investigators to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education located in Jongno-gu, Seoul, this morning to secure documents and data stored on computers related to the teacher hiring process in 2018 from the superintendent’s office on the 9th floor. This is the first time since the PCC was launched earlier this year that it has conducted a raid.
Superintendent Cho is accused of instructing the review and promotion of a plan to specially hire five dismissed teachers as educational public officials between July and August 2018, on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of rights.
At the time, when Superintendent Cho received opposing opinions from the person in charge, he instructed Mr. A from the superintendent’s secretariat to proceed with the special hiring. Mr. A selected lawyers and others he knew as screening committee members, differing from the existing selection method, and selected the dismissed teachers recommended by Superintendent Cho, who were then specially hired in January of the following year.
However, it was revealed that four of the five specially hired teachers were retired teachers affiliated with the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (JeonGyoJo) who had been prosecuted for violating the Public Official Election Act during the 2008 Seoul Superintendent of Education election, received a final guilty verdict from the Supreme Court, and were consequently dismissed. The remaining one was also a teacher who had been fined and dismissed for posting comments opposing a specific candidate during the 2002 presidential election, sparking controversy over “protecting a specific union.”
Earlier, the Board of Audit and Inspection confirmed these misconducts by Superintendent Cho through an audit, reported him to the police for violating the National Public Officials Act, and provided related misconduct as reference materials for the PCC’s investigation. Subsequently, the police transferred the case to the PCC at its request.
The PCC is expected to analyze the seized items and soon summon related individuals for questioning.
Meanwhile, it was reported on the same day that the PCC’s Investigation Division 3 (Chief Prosecutor Choi Seok-gyu) is directly investigating former Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Past Affairs Investigation Division for alleged “false preparation and media leak of the Yoon Jung-chun interview report,” which was transferred from the prosecution. This is the first case of the PCC investigating a prosecutor.
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