Koreans rate government officials negatively in their overall work, while officials evaluated themselves favorably, a recent survey showed Sunday.

According to a survey of 700 citizens, 18,747 government officials, 112 retired government officials and 89 experts conducted by Korea Institute of Public Administration, only 38.4 percent of the citizens said the work ethic of officials had improved compared to the past. Among the officials polled, 80.3 percent responded positively to the question while 77.7 percent of the retired officials gave positive responses.




Asked whether the government officials work fairly, only 18 percent of citizen respondents said they do, while 69.8 percent of the officials and 88.4 of the retirees polled gave positive answers.

To a question asking whether the credibility of government officials has improved compared to the past, 20 percent of the citizens and 50.9 percent of the officials answered yes.

As for the reasons why credibility has not increased, 66 percent of the citizens said it was because officials pursue their own interests by taking advantage of their posts. About 40 percent of the current officials cited the practice of giving privileges to retired officials as the reason, while 55.5 percent of retired officials answered that collusion between the government and private sector harms credibility.

Meanwhile, President Moon Jae-in’s administration has set “creating a transparent and capable government” as one of the main goals in its five-year plan, pushing policies aimed at rooting out wrongdoings of government officials and instituting fair personnel management.

By Park Ju-young (jupark@heraldcorp.com)