Roh to Public Sector: Compete or Else

On June 13, President Roh Moo-hyun, on the Senior Executive Service system to be introduced at the beginning of next month, commented, “Now the public sector must compete with the private sector. If it fails to produce results, it will face a threat to be privatized.”

Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Jeong Tae-ho said that President Roh said in a Cabinet meeting held on the same day, “Top government officials who fail to produce results will now face consequences based on thorough evaluations.”

President Roh pointed out, “This system is significant in the sense that it will promote exchanges between government offices and agencies, and public officials might be removed based on their performance under the system. Unless we tackle the current in-and-in breeding type human resources management system, the public sector will get depressed and lose its competitiveness.”

President Roh also said, “Some in our society talk of fatigue from reforms. But society without changes will experience depression and fall behind. Changes are made through reforms. And reforms always run into resistance. What is most dangerous is to disrupt government polices on real estate and education reforms with dogmatism.”

Some observers said that President Roh’s remarks might be a warning to the ruling Uri Party that recently talked of a need for changes in major policies including the ones on the real estate market.

In the meeting, President Roh also said, “The genuine purpose of the reforms is to establish politics and markets where consumers prevail. The media’s fair reporting is what matters most in realizing consumer sovereignty.”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com