Eight of Lee's 10 nominees not free from ethical problems: lawmaker

SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Yonhap) -- More than eight out of 10 people named by President Lee Myung-bak to key government posts over the past four years were beleaguered by suspicion of various irregularities, an opposition lawmaker said Monday.
A total of 89 people underwent parliamentary confirmation hearings after being nominated to key government posts under the current administration and 73, or 82 percent, of them were not free from five major types of law offenses by influential officials, including tax evasion, real estate speculation and evasion of military service, Rep. Park Woo-soon of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said.
He cited a report submitted by the National Assembly Secretariat for the regular parliamentary audit.
The five major offenses were tax evasion (64 percent), real estate speculation (49.4 percent), false home address registration (32.6 percent), draft dodging (18 percent) and plagiarism of academic papers (14.6 percent) in that order.
About 9 percent of the 89 nominees subject to confirmation hearings were forced to quit due to suspicions of such irregularities, the lawmaker said.
The failure rate is three times higher than 3.4 percent during the former liberal government led by President Roh Moo-hyun, Park pointed out.
Lee, however, appointed most of the nominees even after suspicions of their ethical problems were raised during confirmation hearings, the lawmaker said.