7 out of 10 People Say "Public Institutions Must Be Reformed"

MoEF, Announces Report on 'Public Institution Policy Awareness Survey' Results

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Seven to eight out of ten general public and experts recognize the need to strengthen financial management and implement intensive reforms in public institutions. More than six out of ten respondents answered that the reckless management of public institutions is serious.

On the 25th, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced a report on the results of the 'Public Institution Policy Awareness Survey' containing these findings.

According to this survey conducted by Korea Research, 55.5% of the general public and 71.1% of experts responded that the size of the organization and workforce of public institutions is large. Opinions that the average salary of public institutions is high were similar between the general public (61.0%) and experts (64.9%), while more of the general public (64.3%) than experts (57.7%) believed that welfare benefits are higher compared to the private sector.

Regarding the productivity of public institutions being lower than that of the private sector, 44.3% of the general public and 66.0% of experts responded affirmatively.

Awareness of problems related to the seniority-based pay system and reckless management in public institutions was also high. 59.9% of the general public and 62.9% of experts answered that the seniority-based pay system is problematic,

and 63.8% of the general public and 64.9% of experts responded that reckless management is serious.

Accordingly, responses supporting the need for public institution reform policies followed. Among the general public, the highest percentage (73.8%) pointed out the need to strengthen financial management such as reducing debt size, followed by intensive public institution reform (71.8%), adjustment and conversion of functions (68.7%), expansion of roles and support of public institutions to support private sector growth (58.5%), and expansion of operational autonomy of public institutions (44.5%). Experts also most frequently expressed the need to strengthen financial management such as reducing debt size (89.7%), followed by adjustment and conversion of functions (83.5%), intensive public institution reform (77.3%), expansion of operational autonomy of public institutions (63.9%), and expansion of roles and support of public institutions to support private sector growth (50.5%).

On the other hand, only about 35% of public institution employees responded that intensive public institution reform is necessary, showing a temperature gap compared to the general public and experts.

There were also many opinions criticizing the government's public institution management policies. Among experts, 74.2% responded that the limitations of promoting public institution reform were due to one-off policy implementation and lack of compatibility. Tasks requiring improvement included adjustment of management scope such as personnel, budget, finance, and business performance (47.4%), and differentiation of management systems by type such as government-funded research institutes (40.2%).

69.1% of experts also responded that the current public institution management evaluation indicator system is inappropriate. Specifically, the most common response for improvement tasks in the management evaluation system was the need to establish an indicator system reflecting the characteristics of institutions (49.5%), followed by securing fairness and transparency in the evaluation process (24.7%), strengthening the expertise of evaluation committee members (15.5%), and enhancing education and feedback functions for understanding the evaluation system (10.3%).