Park Jangbeom, KBS President, Rejected 9 Audit Office Personnel Requests... Board of Audit and Inspection Warns of "Threat to Independence"

Two Department Heads Operated in Audit Office for a Single Authorized Position under Former President Park Min

57% of Employees in Senior Roles Despite Three Consecutive Years of Losses

Drama Production and Employee Benefits Also Under Scrut

According to an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection, it was found that Jangbeom Park, President of the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), unjustifiably refused requests from the auditor for personnel changes among audit office staff, which are meant to ensure the independence of internal audits. During the tenure of former KBS President Park Min, it was also confirmed that for approximately eight months, there were two heads operating a department in the audit office, even though there was only one official position, resulting in duplicated work and confusion.

On October 7, the Board of Audit and Inspection released the results of a public interest audit titled "Audit on the Infringement of Auditor Independence by the KBS President" and issued a warning to KBS. According to the findings, Auditor A, who was reinstated by court order between June and September 2025, requested President Park nine times to replace five department heads, including the Chief Auditor and Audit Manager. The KBS auditor work regulations state that, in order to guarantee the independence of internal audits, personnel appointments and transfers for audit department staff must comply with the auditor's requests.

However, President Park rejected all requests, citing, among other reasons, the pending case in the Supreme Court concerning the appointment validity of successor Auditor B. Even after the Supreme Court finalized the suspension of execution in September last year, he continued to refuse the replacement requests. The Board of Audit and Inspection commented that such factors cannot be deemed unavoidable circumstances, warning that "there is a risk that the intent of the auditor work regulations could be undermined."

Personnel management issues in the audit office during the tenure of former President Park Min were also noted. In February 2024, without any request from the auditor, Park transferred three department heads, including the Chief Auditor and Audit Manager, to other departments. When the court ordered a suspension of these transfers in June of the same year on procedural grounds, KBS reinstated the original department heads, but did not remove the newly appointed ones.

As a result, for around eight months, two department heads worked concurrently in each of the three departments, creating an abnormal staffing situation. Duplicate reviews of approximately 100 routine audits per month by two heads and dividing up employee evaluations led to inefficiencies and confusion. Normal headcount for department heads was restored in March last year, after Jangbeom Park took office as KBS president.

In the regular institutional audit of KBS, also released that day, 17 management issues were identified regarding drama production budgets, personnel, and employee benefits. KBS's total revenue decreased from KRW 1.5082 trillion in 2021 to KRW 1.3317 trillion in 2024, and its net loss in 2024 reached KRW 73.5 billion.

It was found that all 54 outsourced dramas on KBS 2TV over the past five years were contracted without concrete calculation grounds for the production costs. Of the 10 most recent productions, six spent a total of KRW 6.7 billion less than their contractual production budgets. One outsourced production company was even found to have fraudulently inflated the leading actor’s appearance fee by KRW 450 million, causing financial harm to KBS.

Of the total 3,738 KBS employees in 2024, the proportion of those in the high-ranking G2 grade or above was 57.4%, which is 8.6 percentage points higher than the in-house target of 48.8%. Even with a deficit of KRW 73.5 billion in 2024, the per capita employee welfare expense was KRW 3.99 million, 1.93 times the average of other public institutions. Between 2020 and 2024, KBS provided KRW 10.75 billion in communication expense support to all employees, and it was also found to have retained 397 condominium and resort memberships, even though the average utilization rate was only 31.5%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.