Corruption scandal

The woes over Busan Savings Bank first erupted as an insolvency problem in February. Then it turned into a criminal case affecting the bank???s executives who are suspected of giving illegal loans for their own building projects and offering bribes to regulators. Now it is emerging as a corruption scandal surrounding the confidants of President Lee Myung-bak.
On Thursday, state auditor Eun Jin-soo, 50, resigned over his alleged involvement. The prosecution will soon summon him for questioning to confirm allegations that he exercised influence to help the troubled savings bank avoid its forced exit from the market. Eun should not have engaged in influence peddling, while serving as a senior official of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI).
He faces claims that he accepted huge sums and a diamond from the bank in return for his lobbying for the Busan-based financial firm. If he is found to have played a role in favor of the bank, he cannot avoid criminal charges that would deal a severe blow to the Lee administration.
Eun worked as a legal adviser to the bank for two years from 2005. He should have been banned from dealing with the savings bank problem as a state auditor. Regrettably, he and other auditors ignored BAI regulations requiring that such an official as Eun be excluded from cases related to firms they once worked for.
What really matters is that the government should not have named Eun state auditor, given that his close ties with President Lee could damage the political neutrality and independence of the inspection agency. Eun???s appointment is certainly a typical example of Lee???s misguided bids to install his henchmen as Cabinet ministers and other key government officials.
The savings bank crisis is the direct result of corrupt ties between greedy bankers and government officials with little sense of responsibility and ethics. Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik revealed in February that politicians and officials pressured the BAI not to conduct an inspection of Busan and other staggering savings banks last year while he was BAI chief.
Eun was possibly one of those who had lobbied for Busan Savings Bank. This means that there might have been people higher-up in the inner circle of the Lee regime who had tried to protect the lender from its inevitable shutdown. It is regrettable that not only financial regulators but also a state auditor have yielded to the temptation of bribes from the bank executives.
The scandal indicates that the Lee administration has totally failed in its anti-corruption campaign, not to mention the President???s much-avowed drive to usher in a fair society. If a handful of cronies of the leader monopolize power, corruption is inevitable. In this regard, Lee cannot shirk his responsibility for the corruption scandal.
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