Prosecutors' Office: "Absolute Shortage of Administrative Staff... Approaching Limits"… Legal Quota Must Increase by 20

"Shortage of Administrative Staff May Lead to Investigator Deployment"
Increase Only Possible Through Legal Amendments Due to Lack of Delegation Regulations

Gwacheon Government Complex High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Department.
Photo by the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Department

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Office (HCIO) has voiced severe manpower shortages and urged for an amendment to the HCIO Act, which currently limits the number of administrative personnel to 20.

At a briefing held on the 29th at the HCIO in the Government Complex Gwacheon, Kim Jung-yeol, HCIO Planning and Coordination Officer, stated, "The reality of manpower management is gradually reaching its limit," adding, "Despite workers having rights they should enjoy, the lack of replacement personnel and insufficient staff have led to a desperate situation where the rights of individual public servant workers are at risk of being infringed."

Kim further expressed concern, saying, "If the outflow of administrative personnel is left unchecked, next year we will have no choice but to assign administrative tasks to investigators."

Article 11 (Other Staff) of the HCIO Act stipulates in paragraph 1 that "staff necessary for the administrative affairs of the investigation office may be appointed," and paragraph 2 limits the number of such staff to within 20, thereby capping the number of HCIO administrative personnel at 20.

Unlike other ministries where staff numbers are generally delegated to be determined by presidential decree or similar, the HCIO directly specifies the number of administrative personnel in the law itself, just as it does for HCIO prosecutors (including the chief and deputy chief, up to 25) and investigators (up to 40), making any increase impossible without legal amendment.

According to the HCIO, as of the end of November, although the legal number of administrative personnel is 20, excluding 7 individuals?5 department heads including the Planning and Coordination Officer, Human Rights Inspector, Spokesperson, Planning and Finance Officer, and Operations Support Officer, as well as 2 personnel seconded from the Ministry of Personnel Innovation and the Ministry of Government Legislation for specific duties?the actual available administrative staff is only 13. Among these 13, one is currently on parental leave.

Given this situation, tasks such as secretarial work, media relations, auditing, budgeting, National Assembly liaison, international cooperation, personnel, payroll, contracts/expenditure/settlement, informatization, building management, and records management are each handled by a single staff member.

An HCIO official stated, "As a central administrative agency mandated by law, the HCIO is performing the full range of administrative duties of a ministry with this limited staff," adding, "As a result, among the 13 administrative personnel, 5 (approximately 38%) have expressed intentions to take leave or are planning to do so due to heavy workloads, childcare, or health issues, and some have even requested transfers," describing the current situation at the HCIO.

To minimize the adverse effects caused by the shortage of administrative personnel, the HCIO has been responding by receiving staff seconded from other public institutions or local governments and by deploying contract workers. However, the number of seconded personnel has dropped by more than half, from 48 at the end of last year to 20 as of November.

An HCIO official appealed, "Receiving staff from external agencies is only a temporary measure, and if the outflow of administrative personnel is left unchecked, next year we will have no choice but to assign administrative tasks to investigator personnel," adding, "This could jeopardize the HCIO’s investigative work, so to normalize agency operations, increasing administrative personnel can no longer be postponed."

Currently, the payroll officer is on parental leave, with a spokesperson’s office staff member temporarily filling in; an employee diagnosed as needing long-term sick leave has no replacement and has returned early to work while receiving outpatient treatment; and an employee who recently gave birth has been unable to apply for parental leave on time due to pressing work demands.

The 20 administrative personnel are absolutely insufficient to perform the basic functions required of a central administrative agency, such as personnel, general affairs, accounting, National Assembly liaison, public relations, and inspection, making it difficult to maintain the organizational functions legally assigned, according to the HCIO’s assessment.

To overcome these issues, the HCIO has been forced to operate with seconded personnel from other agencies, but this raises concerns about security, such as personal information management, limits the accumulation of organizational capabilities, and the number of seconded personnel is decreasing.

As this situation continues, when vacancies arise due to childcare or illness, smooth task delegation or immediate replacement becomes difficult, raising concerns about infringement of workers’ rights guaranteed by law, both for the agency and individuals.

In fact, employees who need parental or sick leave are unable to fully utilize these legally guaranteed rights due to the lack of replacement personnel, leading not only to lowered morale but also to some employees requesting transfers, indicating signs of organizational attrition.

The Korea Institute for Policy Capability Enhancement conducted a policy research project from June to October and recently published the "Policy Research Report on Strengthening the Organizational Capacity of the HCIO," estimating the appropriate number of administrative personnel for the HCIO to be 50.

An HCIO official said, "Based on such reports, we consider increasing administrative personnel the agency’s top priority and are actively explaining the situation to the National Assembly to amend the HCIO Act within this year to increase staff," adding, "We earnestly request the public’s interest and support."