The Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry decided to dismiss two executives after accepting the government's audit findings over the controversy surrounding a press release on inheritance tax. It also plans to request an investigation into executives suspected of misappropriating funds during preparations for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit held in Oct. last year.
KORCHAM said on the 20th that it had been notified of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources' audit results regarding the distribution of the inheritance tax press release and the execution of the APEC CEO Summit budget, and "We solemnly accept the audit results and will faithfully implement the required measures," adding that it swiftly carried out personnel actions against the executives.
First, in connection with the audit of the inheritance tax press release, Executive Managing Director A, who bears major responsibility, and the responsible executive, Deputy Minister B, were dismissed. Regarding the APEC CEO Summit audit, Project Head C was processed as resignation upon request, and the organization decided to request an investigation to verify additional facts concerning budget execution procedures. It also plans to request an investigation into Director D, who is suspected of attempted embezzlement of lodging expenses.
Executive Vice Chairman Park Il-jun expressed an intention to take responsibility for the incident and step down. Park plans to leave the post as soon as the follow-up measures pursuant to the audit results are completed.
After receiving the audit results, KORCHAM Chairman Chey Tae-won said, "I feel a deep sense of responsibility," adding, "We will use this as an opportunity not only to take stern measures against those involved but also to comprehensively overhaul our decision-making structure and internal control system."
Along with personnel actions against the executives, KORCHAM said it will push "three major reforms" to restore trust damaged by the incident: ▲ strengthening expertise ▲ redefining social responsibility ▲ innovating organizational culture.
First, to strengthen expertise, it will create a new position of "chief of economic research" (working title) and bring in external experts. The chief of economic research will oversee KORCHAM's survey and research functions and handle fact-checking and review of external releases such as press materials. KORCHAM also plans to integrate and manage related organizations, including its research arm SGI, the Survey Headquarters, and the Industrial Innovation Headquarters.
SGI will be reorganized into KORCHAM's research institute (tentatively named the Chamber Economic Research Institute) by regularizing existing research staff and recruiting external specialists. It also plans to build internal and external verification systems for survey and research materials and establish research ethics guidelines, including source citation, quotation, and conflict-of-interest prevention.
It will also pursue structural improvements to further strengthen the fulfillment of social responsibility as a statutory economic organization. In the policy recommendation process, it plans to introduce a framework that analyzes and presents impact assessments not only on corporations' interests but also on various stakeholders such as labor and vulnerable groups.
In addition, it will expand and reorganize the audit office into a "compliance office" and establish a compliance monitoring team under it to improve internal controls and a compliance management framework. The management support division under the existing executive managing director will be elevated to the "management planning headquarters" directly under the executive vice chairman. The external cooperation team will move under the communications office to comprehensively expand functions for communication with external stakeholders.
Chairman Chey Tae-won plans to hold a nationwide chamber chairpersons' meeting on the 31st and a KORCHAM members' town hall on Apr. 2 to share the reform plan and exchange views.