Audit Results on the Preparation and Utilization of National Statistics Released
Audit results revealed that during the Moon Jae-in administration, the Presidential Secretariat (Blue House), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and others directly or indirectly pressured statistical agencies such as Statistics Korea and the Korea Real Estate Board to manipulate various housing statistics figures.
On the 17th, the Board of Audit and Inspection disclosed the results of the 'Audit on the Preparation and Utilization of Major National Statistics' and announced that it requested disciplinary actions and personnel data notifications for a total of 31 officials from the Blue House, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea Real Estate Board, and Statistics Korea who modified or distorted statistical figures and descriptive information.
Earlier, on the 10th, the Board of Audit and Inspection finalized the 'Audit Results on the Preparation and Utilization of Major National Statistics' which had been preliminarily announced in September 2023, by resolution of the Audit Committee.
According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, at that time, the Blue House and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport instructed the Korea Real Estate Board to lower the housing price fluctuation rates or distort statistics to make real estate measures appear effective, totaling 102 instances. The Blue House and the Ministry violated the Statistics Act by ordering the prior provision of housing statistics and rejected 12 requests from the Korea Real Estate Board to stop such actions.
In particular, the Blue House, wanting to know the statistical results in advance, required reports of the 'midweek figures' (investigated over 3 days and reported) and 'flash estimates' (investigated over 7 days and reported immediately) before the official announcement of the 'final figures' (investigated over 7 days and announced the following day) for housing price fluctuation rates.
The Blue House and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also exerted influence to adjust statistical figures. In August 2018, when the midweek figure for Seoul's housing price fluctuation rate was reported as 0.67%, the Blue House instructed lowering the flash estimate and final figure by reflecting the suspension of development plans for Yongsan and Yeouido and the August 27 measures, resulting in the final figure being announced as 0.45%.
The Board of Audit and Inspection stated that when an upward trend appeared in the Seoul housing market in the first half of 2019, the Blue House and the Ministry demanded the Korea Real Estate Board to lower the housing price fluctuation rates. During this process, there were indications that the Blue House and the Ministry pressured the Korea Real Estate Board by mentioning budget cuts and personnel measures.
When housing prices continued to rise despite the June 17 and July 10 measures in 2020, the Blue House and the Ministry requested lowering the fluctuation rates to make it appear that the market had stabilized due to government measures, resulting in the fluctuation rate being consistently announced as 0.01% for 10 weeks from August to October 2020, according to the Board of Audit and Inspection.
Statistical manipulation also occurred in household income and income inequality-related statistics. The Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out that when Statistics Korea confirmed a decrease in household income in the aggregated results for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters of 2017 compared to the previous year, it arbitrarily applied weighting factors to increase household income.
Additionally, when the 'income quintile' ratio, which indicates the degree of income inequality, showed the worst record in the first quarter of 2018, the Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out that the weighting application criteria were arbitrarily changed to adjust the figures.
The Board of Audit and Inspection stated, "While requesting disciplinary actions and notifying personnel data for a total of 31 officials from the Blue House, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea Real Estate Board, and Statistics Korea, it also instructed the Ministry and Statistics Korea to establish measures to enhance the accuracy and reliability of statistics and to thoroughly carry out related tasks in the future."
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