◀ anchor ▶
This time, we will continue with an exclusive report on Cho Kyu-hong, the nominee for Minister of Health and Welfare.
Civil service pensions stop or reduce payments if your earnings are more than your pension.
However, it was confirmed that candidate Cho received an annual salary of close to 300 million won while working for an international organization and received a civil servant pension of 100 million won at the same time.
It is an explanation that there is no violation of the rules, but it is pointed out that it is inappropriate as a candidate for the Minister of Welfare who will be responsible for the pension policy.
Reporter Hyo-Jeong Nam’s exclusive report.
◀ Report ▶
Candidate Gyu-Hong Cho, Minister of Health and Welfare, became a director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) immediately following retiring from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
My annual salary was regarding £160,000 each, and I received regarding 250 million won a year in Korean money.
However, while working for an international organization with such a high salary, it was confirmed that candidate Cho received a public servant pension of billions of dollars.
This is the details of Candidate Cho’s civil servant pension receipt. (Justice Party Rep. Kang Eun-mi’s office)
From October 2018, when Cho began his activities as a director, to May of this year, he received a civil servant pension of 152 million won.
If you look at the length of time he served as a director of an international organization, it was 117 million won, or more than 100 million won.
However, according to the Civil Service Pension Act, if business or earned income exceeds the average monthly pension amount of the previous year, the pension payment will be suspended or reduced.
As of this year, if you earn more than 2.42 million won a month, you will receive a pension, but Cho’s income was much higher than this.
In response, the Ministerial candidate’s personnel hearing preparation team explained, “The income earned from the EBRD does not fall under the wage and salary income that is subject to reduction in the civil servant pension.”
“The same standard applies to other international organizations, so individual candidate Cho cannot change his/her income, and he also reported the amount of income to the Public Officials Pension Service.”
It is said that there was no violation of laws or regulations, but some pointed out that it was inappropriate as the head of the Ministry of Health and Welfare to be responsible for the pension policy.
[남인순/더불어민주당 의원]
“It doesn’t make sense to me to receive a civil servant pension just because there are no legal problems. I think it is morally once morest the public sentiment.”
It was also confirmed that Cho did not pay insurance premiums as he was registered as a dependent of his spouse’s workplace health insurance during some of his tenure with the EBRD.
This is Hyo-Jeong Nam from MBC News.
Video Editing: Yeeun Jang
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