MOGAHA Minister Oh Y.K.
Calls for Reform
- At 7th Local Public Firms Grand Prize and Reform Rally

The Oh Young-kyo-type management reform will be provided to local government-invested public firms so that these firms would learn how to upgrade their customer satisfaction levels based on performance-oriented personnel management.
The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA) on Jan.28 held the 7th Local Public Firm Management Grand Prize and Reform Rally at the Education and Culture Hall in Yangjae-dong, southern Seoul, jointly with the Korea Economic Daily, and the Korea Local Government Management Institute.
MOGAHA Minister Oh Young-kyo, in his congratulatory speech at the event, said he welcomes every one present at the rally. The 7th awarding ceremony has been always dedicated to finding able top CEOs in local government-invested public firms and reward them designed to spread new management techniques and cases of management reform and thus inciting good-will competition among local public firms. He said since the legislation of the Local Public Enterprise Law in 1969, those local public firms in diversified areas such as subway, medicine and urban development have been spurring local economies and providing services for welfare of local residents. Also, efforts have been made to upgrade operational results of management of local public firms by hiring able CEOs from outside in an effort to establish responsible management systems through tough restructuring processes.
But it is also a fact that those local public firms have been the target of public criticism that their operational results fell short of public expectations, he claimed. The introduction of management know-how from the private sector has not been working well with local public firms, but it could also be blamed on complacency on the part of management of local public firms, he said.
The minister noted that the government has been pushing government and local administrative reform very hard in answer to change and reform that the people want from the government, adding that any one who fails to cope with the flow of the rapidly changing environment and market in this age, would be left behind. "In this age of free competitive market, many enterprises are born every day, but also fade away," he said.
Local public firms are not safe, just because they are owned by local governments. If they don't change and hang on to old practices, not doing their jobs to full extent possible, it would be like swindling the people.
The participatory government of President Roh Moo-hyun has been working for public sector reform so that it may be an effective regime always on the side of the people. In-the-not-too-distance-future, it would be recognized by the international society as the government that works well, enjoying people's trust and competitive.
Attending the event included representatives of 121 local government-invested public firms among 400 people from related organizations where they saw 10 instructions designed to reform management displayed. They included Kim Seung-kyu, president of SH Corp., which ranked first for the second straight year in the 2004 performance assessment.
Included among the instructions were building a responsible management system for CEOs, personnel management based on performance and fairness, strengthening reform capabilities through concentration and selection, new labor-management culture settlement and evaluation on management and reward and feedback system building, among others.
MOGAHA intends to reward exemplary firms after evaluating management reform procedures of those firms along with substantial incentives. Yoo Sang-soo, management support section head of MOGAHA, those excellent firms would be given a higher upper limit for salary increases or pay 100 percent additional performance bonus on top of 300 percent currently paid, although the idea is being considered at this stage. When MOGAHA Minister Oh was with KOTRA as president, he made KOTRA a top firm in terms of customer satisfaction levels with the introduction of performance based personnel evaluation system. nw