The government raised the public-interest score weight related to safety management in public institution management evaluations and expanded the weight for the industrial accident prevention category to a record high. It will also introduce a separate "institution head evaluation" to review the leadership and expertise of the heads of institutions, apart from the institutional evaluation.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance said that on the 30th, Second Vice Minister Lim Gi-geun chaired the "9th Public Institution Steering Committee" and deliberated and approved the "2025 public institution management evaluation manual revision (draft)," which contains these measures.
This revised manual reflects amendments to laws and changes in the new administration's policy direction after the 2025 evaluation manual was finalized in Dec. last year. The ministry prepared the revision through a public-private "task force (TF) on improving the public institution management evaluation system," gathering opinions and conducting internal reviews.
First, the ministry decided to increase the public-interest weight from 16.5 points to 20.5 points. This step is meant to strengthen public institutions' social responsibility, such as bolstering safety management and responding to climate change. The weight for the industrial accident prevention category related to safety was raised to a record 2.5 points. The weight for financial indicators, criticized for duplication and excessive weighting, will be reduced from 21 points to 15.5 points.
To strengthen the responsibility of institution heads, a separate "evaluation of institution head performance under the management contract (hereinafter institution head evaluation)" will be introduced apart from the institutional evaluation. The institution head evaluation will assess personal competencies and qualities such as leadership and expertise, as well as performance in fulfilling the management contract, and will operate as an absolute four-grade evaluation (excellent, average, insufficient, very insufficient). The results will be linked to personnel decisions and performance pay for institution heads.
To encourage management and technological innovation in public institutions, new bonus points will be introduced for creating safe workplaces (1.5 points) and for innovation such as utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) (1.5 points). The safe workplace bonus will focus on strengthening and supporting the safety capabilities of partner firms, spreading a safety culture, and communication outcomes, while the innovation bonus for AI utilization will emphasize improvements to productivity and services through AI.
The weight for key projects that evaluate the work performance of each public institution will be increased by 5 points. Accordingly, the weight for key projects will be adjusted from 45 points to 50 points for public corporations, from 50 points to 55 points for quasi-governmental fund institutions, and from 55 points to 60 points for quasi-governmental consignment institutions.
The public institution management evaluation manual is expected to apply to the 2025 performance evaluation to be conducted in the first half of next year. The final evaluation results will be confirmed at the Public Institution Steering Committee meeting in June next year.
Second Vice Minister Lim Gi-geun urged, "With the resolve that management bears primary responsibility for serious industrial accidents at public institutions, please make special efforts to thoroughly inspect and improve the safety management conditions at public institution worksites."