Former KBS President Earn over $50,000 in 88 Days

Jeong Youn-ju, former KBS president, received 52.4 million won ($54,000) for working as the acting president of KBS for 88 days after finishing his term on June 30, 2006, sources said.

According to the National Assembly audit report that Chang Yoon-seok, a lawmaker of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP), received on October 23, 2006 from KBS, Jeong received a monthly salary of 16 million won ($16,500) from July to September and spent 4.35 million won ($4,500) from expense accounts assigned to him. In regard to the expense accounts, 3.45 million won ($3,500) was spent for activities occurred outside the company, and 0.94 million won ($950) was spent for activities occurred within the company.

“Although there is no clause stipulating the wage and expense accounts of an acting president, we paid him in accordance to the wage regulations of KBS, assuming his term had been extended,” an official of KBS said.

“President Jeong named a person who was penalized for speculation in December last year as the general director of a local broadcasting station,” Jeon Jae-hee, a lawmaker of the GNP, said, raising suspicions over the process of the appointment.

According to the National Assembly report on KBS that Jeon has disclosed, A, the director of a local broadcasting station, was submitted to a disciplinary measure from the personnel committee at that time for misappropriating $2,690, resulting in cutting A’s salary for three months. A was also found to be guilt of misappropriating during an audit in September 2003 when Jeong was working for KBS as the president. The audit said he misused 1.56 million won ($1,600) between 2000 and 2001 when he worked as a foreign correspondent. He used the money for other purposes than it was initially intended, purchasing items for his personal use.

Although the audit office tried to take a disciplinary action against A, the prescription period for such action (two years) had passed that it reported the detail to the company’s personnel management office as a personnel reference. Such personnel reference is reported to the president of KBS, as well, sources said.

KBS has nine provincial broadcasting stations in areas such as Busan, Changwon, and Ulsan. The general directors of the provincial stations serve as a chief decision maker in place of the KBS president for their respective region.

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