It was revealed in an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection that there were several private school employees who had received a definitive sentence for serious crimes such as attempted sexual assault, involuntary manslaughter, and fraud, which made them eligible for mandatory retirement, but the fact had not been communicated to them, allowing them to work at private schools for more than 3 months.
The Board of Audit and Inspection has informed the Minister of Education to establish a plan to ensure that if investigations or inquiries are conducted against private school administrative staff, this information is communicated to the appointing authority.
According to the results of the regular audit of the Teachers Pension and the Government Employees Pension Service announced by the Board of Audit and Inspection on the 26th, cases were confirmed where private school administrative employees continued to work for an extended period even after being subject to mandatory retirement due to a lack of notification regulations for the commencement and conclusion of investigations.
The Private School Act (Articles 57 and 70-4) stipulates that private school employees who receive a sentence of imprisonment or more for a crime are subject to mandatory retirement. However, there are currently no regulations requiring that notifications regarding the commencement or conclusion of investigations be made to the appointing authority for administrative staff, unlike for teachers.
As a result of checking the criminal records of private school administrative employees who filed for retirement benefits over the past 10 years during the audit period, it was confirmed that 72 private school administrative employees continued to work for at least 3 months even after being subject to mandatory retirement due to definitive sentences for crimes such as attempted sexual assault, fraud, and involuntary manslaughter.
An employee, A, at a high school received a sentence of 3 years in prison with a 4-year probation for attempted sexual assault in August 2021. Though A became subject to mandatory retirement, the high school where A worked was unaware of this fact. As a result, A worked for an additional 32 months until retiring in May 2024.
A kindergarten employee who received a 5-month prison sentence with 1 year of probation for child abuse and a hospital employee who received a 1 year and 2 months sentence for involuntary manslaughter were also found to have continued working for over 5 months without immediate retirement processing.
There were also cases where employees with salary determination authority, such as private kindergarten directors, excessively increased the income standard amount applied to their retirement benefits.
The retirement benefits for subscribers of the Teachers Pension are determined based on the income standard amount at the time of retirement. Among the 727 private kindergarten directors who received retirement benefits from the Teachers Pension Service between 2021 and 2023, 155 (21%) had an increase in their income standard amount of more than 10% compared to the previous year's amount. Among them, 25 had an increase of 50% or more in their salary.
It was found that in 9 cases, if the income standard amount from the previous year before retirement was applied, the retirement benefit amount would increase by more than 10 million won, up to a maximum of 28 million won.
A Board of Audit and Inspection official said, "Concerns about the equity between salary decision-makers and other staff and the burden on the national finances are rising," and added, "We have informed the Minister of Education to prepare appropriate measures, such as setting an upper limit on the increase rate of the income standard amount that applies to retirement benefits, limiting the volatility rate, and establishing monitoring and verification systems for staff with excessive fluctuations in their income standard amount."