Allowed Others to Use R&D Corporate Card for Tens of Millions of Won... Court Rules Public Corporation Employee's Dismissal Was Justified

Submitted Documents as if for 'Personal Purchase'
Exposed by Internal Whistleblower

The court has ruled that the dismissal of a public corporation employee, who handed over a corporate credit card designated for research and development expenses to an outsider and allowed expenditures of approximately 20 million won, was a legitimate disciplinary action.

According to the legal community on May 26, the 13th Administrative Division of the Seoul Administrative Court (presiding judge Jin Hyunseop) ruled against the plaintiff in March in a lawsuit filed by Mr. A against the Central Labor Relations Commission seeking to overturn the decision of the remedial review for unfair dismissal.

Mr. A, who joined Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation in 2010, was assigned as a researcher in 2018 after the corporation was selected as a research institution for a development project publicly recruited by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and was responsible for practical tasks such as executing research and development expenses.

The corporation conducted an internal audit after receiving a whistleblower report in July and August 2022 that Mr. A had misused research and development funds. The audit revealed that Mr. A had provided the corporate credit card, issued exclusively for national research and development projects, to undergraduate students at a partner university and others without authorization.

After Mr. A disclosed the card’s serial number and password, the students used the corporate card at online shopping malls and other places, spending a total of approximately 24 million won. Mr. A then attached accounting statements falsely indicating that the expenditures were for the purchase of office supplies.

In August 2023, the corporation’s personnel committee decided to dismiss Mr. A. Mr. A filed for relief, claiming the dismissal was unfair, but both the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission and the Central Labor Relations Commission rejected his claim.

Mr. A then filed an administrative lawsuit to overturn the Central Labor Relations Commission’s decision, admitting that he had provided the corporate credit card designated for research and development expenses to others, but arguing that his intention was to facilitate research activities and achieve results.

The court found the dismissal of Mr. A to be justified. The court stated, “Mr. A could have recognized that allowing outsiders to continuously use a corporate credit card designated for research and development expenses was improper, yet he repeatedly engaged in such misconduct over an extended period,” adding, “The degree of misconduct is not minor and is highly blameworthy.”

The court further emphasized, “Mr. A’s misconduct not only undermines the integrity of the corporation’s management of research and development expenses, but also poses a risk of negatively affecting the external credibility of the corporation as a specialized research institution.” The court also noted that, as an employee of a public corporation, Mr. A is held to a high standard of morality and integrity.