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| Female members of Seongnam City Council hold up a banner during a press conference at the council building in the city, Gyeonggi Province, Friday, denouncing a civil servant who created a list of 151 single female coworkers and then offered it to Seongnam Mayor's former secretary. Courtesy of Seongnam City |
By Nam Hyun-woo
Criticism is mounting over a male civil servant at Seongnam City, who created a list of 151 single female coworkers and offered it to an unmarried male former secretary of the mayor, apparently seeking favors.
Ten female members of Seongnam City Council held a press conference at the council building in Gyeonggi Province on Friday, and denounced the case as "a serious human rights abuse and crime which harmed women's dignity and infringed on privacy of information."
The council members demanded the city to review the allegation and take immediate action against those involved.
Seongnam Mayor Eun Soo-mi also issued an apology on Thursday, calling it "an unimaginable and unacceptable incident," and pledged to take all necessary measures.
The case was made public on Wednesday after the secretary, who resigned from the post in March last year, reported to the Anti?Corruption and Civil Rights Commission that he received a 12-page document containing photos, names, ages and ranks of 151 single female civil servants in their 30s working at the city government or affiliated organizations from the male civil servant in 2019. The document's creator worked in a human resources team of the city government at the time.
The secretary, surnamed Lee, claimed that the document creator told him to select one of the women, adding he did so to curry favor with the secretary.
Lee claimed he did not report this document to the mayor immediately after receiving it because he believed it would be ignored by the mayor, adding that Eun had ignored a number of his reports on multiple corruption allegations within the city government. Lee quit the post in March 2020.
According to the city government, the civil servant admitted that he created the list, but said he does not remember why he created it. It said the civil servant did not leak the document outside of the city government, and it requested Seongnam Police investigate the case.
Lee has been at odds with Mayor Eun after filing a separate whistleblowing report to the National Human Rights Commission. In November last year, he reported that 33 associates of Eun were illegally hired in the city government and affiliated organizations.
Lee is also criticized for keeping the document for nearly two years and now reporting it in the name of whistleblowing as part of his campaign against Eun.
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| Seongnam Mayor Eun Soo-mi speaks during an interview with the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, in this Feb. 16 file photo. Courtesy of Seongnam City |
