The personal assets of almost half of the country’s top public officials contracted last year amid the economic slowdown, a government ethics committee said yesterday.
Out of the 1,851 highest-ranking officials including the president required to disclose their asset portfolios, 42 percent reported reductions, according to the annual report of the Public Service Ethics Committee.
The number was a slight increase from 40.5 percent in the 2008 filings.
The committee said the loss was mainly due to the downturn in real estate markets last year.
The average value of the officials’ assets, including those of their spouses, was 1.28 billion won ($1.14 million), down from 1.29 billion won in 2008.
The personal wealth of President Lee Myung-bak declined by 30.7 billion won from 2008 to 4.9 billion won last year, the largest reduction in assets among the nation’s top officials.
The president last year donated more than 33.2 billion won, or more than 90 percent of his life’s savings, to a scholarship foundation, with the exception of a house to retire in.
Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye, who was the wealthiest presidential secretary with 9.73 billion won assets in 2008, suffered the biggest loss of 1.87 billion won.
Kim was followed by Kwon Gwang-taek, a North Chungcheong Province councilor, and Lee Young-geun, vice president of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, who reported losses of 1.67 billion won and 753 million won, respectively.
All three officials appeared to have run into similar bad luck in the real estate market, the report said.
The report said, however, that the other 58 percent of top officials saw their assets increase, largely thanks to gains in their stock investments.
Ji Jeong-gu, an Incheon City councilman, reported the highest increase by 4.6 billion won, followed by Kim Ki-soo, former presidential secretary, and Culture Minister Yu In-chon.
The situation in the National Assembly was reversed according to a separate report from the parliamentary ethics committee. Over 50 percent of the 293 legislators subject to wealth disclosure became richer last year.
Out of the 156 lawmakers who reported increased assets, 71 said their portfolios grew by 100 million won or more.
More than half of them, or 40 lawmakers, belonged to the ruling Grand National Party. Especially, Rep. Kim Se-yeon of the GNP reported wealth of 93.5 billion won, up by 60.4 billion won, the biggest increase among the lawmakers.
Despite almost 200 billion won loss, GNP Chairman Chung Mong-joon, a son of Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-young, remained the wealthiest lawmaker, with assets worth 1.45 trillion won.
