The state audit agency announced Friday that high-ranking officials, including a former land minister and key presidential aides from the preceding Moon Jae-in government, manipulated various economic data for several years, allegedly in support of its key economic and real estate policies.
The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) disclosed the interim results of its six-month investigation and has formally requested the prosecution to investigate 22 former government officials, including all four former presidential chiefs of staff for policy — Jang Ha-sung, Kim Su-hyun, Kim Sang-jo and Lee Ho-Seung — as well as former Land Minister Kim Hyun-mi.
The BAI concluded that the presidential office and the land ministry exerted undue pressure on agencies responsible for statistics, compelling them to manipulate official data on income, employment and housing prices since the Moon administration assumed office in May 2017.
Notably, curbing surging housing prices was one of Moon’s policy agendas, leading the land ministry to implement a series of drastic yet contentious real estate measures, including imposing high taxes on those owning more than one home.
Despite the government’s efforts to combat what it labeled as real estate speculation, housing prices skyrocketed. The BAI asserts that the former government officials distorted key economic indicators to create the appearance of policy success.
“Statistics were altered at least 94 times between June 2017 and November 2021,” the BAI said in a press release, noting that the manipulation continued despite questions about the credibility of government data being raised by the press and the public.
In detail, Jang Ha-sung, who is considered the architect of Moon’s income-led growth policy, ordered prior reports or revisions before key statistics were compiled and announced, a violation of the law, the BAI said.
The BAI determined that Jang pressured the Korea Real Estate Board (REB), an affiliate of the land ministry, to intentionally skew samples and use manipulated survey data in publishing real estate price trend reports.
The BAI ruled that such illegal acts of leaking data and manipulation had continued by his successors, Kim Su-hyun and Kim Sang-jo.
During all five years of the Moon administration, the REB data indicated housing prices in Seoul rose by 19.5 percent. However, data compiled by a local bank suggested the prices soared as much as 62.2 percent.
Decreased income for low-income households was another controversial issue in light of Moon’s income-led growth initiative, which included a sharp hike in the minimum wage.
The BAI ruled that the former presidential officials intervened in statistical affairs by ordering that major economic statistics released by Statistics Korea be doctored.
In detail, Statistics Korea’s household income trend survey for the first quarter of 2018 showed that the income gap widened and the total distribution ratio for disposable income, a key barometer of earnings equality, worsened.
The reports at the time triggered criticism that the income of the poor had further decreased and the distribution gap had widened despite Moon’s income-led growth initiative.
The BAI said Statistics Korea then changed its statistical survey method by adding a weighted value, in an attempt to produce what looked like improved data on income distribution.
Source: Yonhap News Agency