[Edaily Reporters Kim Hyung-wook and Jeong Doo-ri] Ahead of the government’s performance evaluation of public institutions, an assessment of the performance of public corporations and quasi-governmental agencies based on indicators such as financial and human resources management, as well as compensation and benefits management, revealed a notable improvement among institutions that had underperformed in last year’s government evaluation.

The Korea Human Resources Development Service, which received a ‘D (Inadequate)’ grade in last year’s management evaluation, ranked first overall, while the Korea Energy Agency and the Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation, both rated ‘C (Average)’, took second and third place, respectively.

◇Korea Expressway Corporation Ranks First in Finance

According to an analysis by Edaily on the 10th of indicators disclosed on the Management Information Disclosure System (ALIO) for 88 public institutions, the Korea Expressway Corporation scored the highest in the financial sector. The Korea Energy Agency and the Seoul Olympic Memorial National Sports Promotion Foundation received the highest scores in the personnel management and compensation/welfare management sectors, respectively, while the Korea National Safety Management Agency received the highest score in the safety management sector.

The financial evaluation is a key indicator of the “debt reduction” achievements that the government has most strongly demanded of public institutions. For public enterprises, this category accounts for 15.5 points out of a possible 100. When limited to quantitative indicators alone, it accounts for 11.5 out of 22.5 points, representing more than half of the total score.

In this evaluation, the Korea Expressway Corporation, the Korea Human Resources Development Service, and Kangwon Land ranked among the top performers. All three institutions maintained a debt-to-equity ratio of 20% and were found to have favorable profitability indicators.

In response to the government’s calls for financial improvement, the debt-to-equity ratios of all 342 public institutions have been on a steady downward trend. The ratio, which had risen to 182.9% in 2023, fell to 180.5% in 2024 and 174.1% in 2025, a decrease of 8.8 percentage points over two years. This was largely due to the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), which accounts for a quarter of the total debt of public institutions, lowering its debt-to-equity ratio after posting a record-high operating profit of 13.4906 trillion won last year.

In contrast, the Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail, ranked 88th) and the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH, ranked 87th) remained at the bottom of the financial evaluation rankings. This is attributed to both organizations carrying high debt-to-equity ratios due to their involvement in large-scale policy projects. In the case of Korail, the debt-to-equity ratio rose from 259.9% to 280.2%, while LH’s ratio also increased from 217.7% to 230.8% over the same period.

◇Korea Energy Agency Maintains Staff Levels While Increasing Social Equity Hiring

In the area of human resources management, the Korea Energy Agency, the Korea Industrial Human Resources Corporation, and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) received high scores. Recently, public institutions’ personnel policies are evaluated more favorably when they prioritize social equity—such as hiring young people, women, people with disabilities, and local talent—while efficiently managing headcount, rather than simply expanding the workforce.

The Korea Energy Agency maintained its workforce at 758 employees last year—similar to the previous year—while expanding recruitment of young people, women, and local talent by hiring 72 new regular employees.

In the compensation and benefits management evaluation, which measures how well employee compensation and benefits are managed, the Seoul Olympic Memorial National Sports Promotion Foundation, the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (KOBACO), and the Korea National Park Service received high scores. They managed compensation and benefits stably by limiting salary increases to 1.2% and freezing the total budget for benefits, while maintaining a low pay gap between executives and employees at 2.31 times.

In the safety management category, the Korea National Safety Management Agency, SR, the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, and KEPCO KDN ranked among the top performers. Not only were there no fatalities from industrial accidents or safety incidents, but they also received favorable results in the government’s safety management rating review and safety activity level assessment.

In contrast, four organizations—LH, Korea East-West Power, the Korea Rural Community Corporation, and the Korea Expressway Corporation—received the lowest scores among the 88 institutions. The fact that they are under investigation for direct and indirect fatal accidents occurring during processes such as construction contracting served as a factor in their lower scores.

Park Jin, a professor at the Graduate School of International Policy Studies at the Korea Development Institute (KDI), stated, “The safety sector has seen the most stringent evaluation criteria under the new administration,” adding, “Whether or not safety accidents occur could become the most critical factor distinguishing one institution from another.”

Efforts toward environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality are also key government evaluation criteria, but they were not reflected in this assessment. This is because data on greenhouse gas reductions and energy consumption for 2025 has not yet been disclosed.

The government plans to hold a meeting of the Public Institution Management Committee under the Ministry of Economy and Finance at the end of this month to finalize the 2025 public institution management evaluation results. This evaluation is drawing particular attention as it marks the first set of public institution performance reports released by the new administration.

Based on their evaluation results—S, A, B, C, D, or E—each institution will receive a performance-based bonus, which typically accounts for about 15% of total salaries, on a tiered basis. At the institutional level, this will be followed by measures to increase or reduce operating expenses. In particular, institutions receiving a grade of D (Insufficient) or lower may face additional measures, such as warnings or the dismissal of their heads.

Professor Lim Do-bin of Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Administration stated, “Since this evaluation covers last year, when the administration changed, we will have to wait for the results to see how much the new government’s policies have been reflected.” He added, “In the case of KEPCO, while it is at a disadvantage in the quantitative financial evaluation due to its high debt, if this is assessed as the public sector’s role in supporting industrial competitiveness amid the energy crisis, a positive outcome could emerge.”