By Lee Hyo-sik and Yoon Won-sup
Staff Report

The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) on Sunday decided to hold a National Assembly committee to look into the allegation that some former high-ranking government officials received tens of millions of won from Kookmin Bank (KB) for advisory roles after they retired from their Cabinet posts.

``We will open the committee soon and take proper steps, including legal action,’’ party vice spokesman Lee Jung-hyun said.

The economic policymakers, including incumbent Deputy Prime Minister and Finance-Economy Minister Lee Hun-jai and former chairman of Financial Supervisory Service Lee Kun-yong, accepted 5 million won per month while serving as advisors for KB, the nation’s largest commercial bank, after leaving office.

Deputy Premier Lee explained his KB advisor role from late 2002 through early this year by saying that he was first asked to serve as an advisor by the former vice president of the bank, Choi Buhm-soo, on a wide range of managerial issues, including the bank’s overall strategy following the merger with Housing & Commercial Bank in November 2001.

Lee asserted that he paid income tax on advisory fees he received from the bank and that there was nothing illegal with serving as a KB advisor when he did not hold a government position.

Former Financial Supervisory Service chairman Lee Kun-yong also insisted there was nothing wrong with accepting the KB advisory role at the bank-affiliated economic and financial research institute.

In the meantime, a KB official emphasized that the payments were strictly for the former officials’ advisory role and nothing more, adding that it would be a waste if their valuable experience, accumulated while they were serving as prominent government economic officials, went down the drain.

``Although it is not uncommon for former government employees in foreign countries to play an active role in the private sector, the bank did not publicly announce the advisory roles held by the former government officials, only because we did not want to create any unnecessary misunderstanding, such as collusion between government and business,’’ the bank official explained.

The main opposition Grand National Party, however, is demanding a thorough parliamentary inquiry into the matter to find out the truth behind KB’s payments.

``Even though the officials did not hold government positions at the time of serving as advisors for the bank, it was easily expected that these officials, who received the payments, would soon take prominent government posts again. So the parliament should launch an investigation to clear any suspicions surrounding the matter,’’ the Grand National Party spokesperson Chun Yu-ok said.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr