Yoon Yang-bae, standing auditor of Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency (KOSHA)

Yoon Yang-bae, standing auditor of Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency (KOSHA), stressed the need for raising Korea’s awareness of occupational safety, health and integrity to rise to the ranks of advanced countries in a full-fledge manner. 

The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and KOSHA Standing Auditor Yoon in which he spoke of his contribution to the development of the national safety and audit fields during his 35-year career in the public entity field.

Question: You have served as standing auditor of KOSHA for two years. Please comment on your job?

Answer: Two years have passed since I took office in January 2014. True to the Chinese maxim "seonwoohurak" that means seeking one's own pleasure only after the people are assured of their happiness, I’ve devoted myself to establishing KOSHA as a public entity credited with top-rate integrity and specialization. 

In particular, in order to meet people’s rising demand and concern toward public safety and to carry out KOSHA’s mission as a public organization responsible for industrial safety and health, KOSHA has declared a vision that calls for renewed determination and working out strategies to make KOSHA a world-class public entity specializing in the prevention of industrial accidents. Labor and management have collaborated for harmony and co-existence. 

However, we do not rest on our laurels, I, as senior auditor, will go back to the basics and start work with a renewed mind so that all staff members can do their best in making KOSHA a body with top integrity and an entity devoting itself to carrying out its mission of preventing industrial accidents and protecting precious human lives. 

KOSHA has been focusing on preventing industrial accidents in such areas as small worksites and service establishments, considered vulnerable to occupational accidents. We’ve been redoubling efforts to enhance the nation’s occupational safety capabilities by signing MOUs with the central and local governments, and related organizations. But we still have a lot of work cut out for us with the goal of making Korea an advanced economy when it comes to occupational safety and health. Korea stood at 0.73 percent in terms of the rate of industrial accidents, twice as much as advanced countries, including the United States, Japan and Germany. The nation suffered huge losses from industrial accidents. Direct and indirect losses, caused by industrial accidents, amounted to 19.6 trillion won in 2014, equivalent to some 109 times what was caused by natural disasters. 

Making matters worse, economic losses caused by industrial accidents are on the rise over the recent decade. Work-day related losses caused by industrial accidents were 74 times those caused by labor disputes. 

We have to cope with fast changes in the labor environment to be an advanced country in occupational safety and health. The industry structure has changed with a decline in manufacturing, a rise in the percentage of service industries, and large-size companies’ general trend of outsourcing dangerous jobs to SMEs. There has also been a rise in the number of elderly people, women and migratory workers, who are more vulnerable to industrial accidents. On the other hand, public demand for safety and health is mounting. Industrial accidents have an impact on the general public’s lives beyond worksites. People’s concerns about the nation’s safety system are widespread, because of such large-scale disasters as the sinking of the Sewol ferry. KOSHA is devoting itself to preventing industrial accidents by revamping strategies under a new vision of being a “happiness partner” of workers and a premier entity specializing in the prevention of industrial accidents. 

Q: Will you comment on KOSHA’s feat of being classified into the top-class in the 2014 standing auditors’ job performance evaluation by the Ministry of Strategy and Financing (MOSF) 

A: It is an honor for us to win the highest grade in the MOSF’s evaluation. KOSHA was relocated to the innovative city of Ulsan, and I’ve devoted myself to making KOSHA a sustainable business partner committed to carrying out social responsibilities since January 2014 when I took office as the standing auditor. In order to fill up the vacuum caused by the absence of the standing auditor, and advance an in-housing audit system, I have designated top auditing principles   the S.A.F.E., which stands for “Smart” strategic risk management; “Anti-fraud” for effective support for anti-fraud; “Facilitator” for spurring sound management; and “Expert.” I’ve done my best in revamping in-house auditing regimes by introducing an ICT-based audition system. 

KOSHA faced a lot of external and internal difficulties last year. The agency, recognized for exemplary anticorruption organizations for the sixth executive year, ranked 26th among 28 surveyed organizations in an inside integrity survey due to overloaded responsibilities related to the sinking of the Sewol ferry. Despite the difficult situation, KOSHA topped the MOSF’s 2014 standing auditors’ job performance evaluation, a surprise feat of achieving the impossible. 

Public entity auditors pose together while attending a special lecture on the Constitution and Constitutional Trials and the regular June session of the Public Entity Auditors’ Forum at El Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on June 25, 2015.

Q: What are your priorities as the standing auditor?

A: First of all, KOSHA has to turn to specialization and integrity to be sustainable for 100 years or 1,000 years. To this end, we have established and implemented eight “top” improvement areas, including connection-based performance; gift/treat-giving and receiving; transparency of work; revamping of inside and outside reporting systems; and personnel change favors and bribery. The steps will improve integrity, including revamping of a reporting system designed to spur whistle blowing and continuous improving of irrational systems to eradicate corruption, the strengthening of education on awareness of integrity, and the execution of awarding and punishing in connection with personnel management. 

Despite the difficult, KOSHA has managed to make the surprise feat thanks to the creation of an environment for cultivating and improving integrity. 

First, KOSHA President Lee Young-soon, who has been in the occupational safety and health field for several years, and Standing Auditor have managed to promote smooth communication based on unlimited reliability.

Second, my 35-year career as an official of the Ministry of Employment and Labor has contributed to introducing and implementing of a model to improve KOSHA’s auditing. 

Third, KOSHA’s mission of ensuring safety to protect precious human lives, and implementing auditing to ensure integrity may be two sides of the same coin. We have managed to secure an impetus to carry out the two simultaneously.  

As a result, these efforts have led to the gaining of the “excellence” grade in the evaluation. But we do not rest on our laurels; we want to do our part to lay a foundation for Korea to rise to an advanced country by developing and spreading best practices so that all public entities can share. 

Q: What will you do as the standing auditor in the years to come?

A: Korea has joined the ranks of advanced countries in important top 10 indexes, including becoming the seventh country into the 2025 Club; the sixth-largest holder in foreign currency; the ninth-biggest military power; the world’s biggest R&D investment vs. GDP ratio; and the fifth biggest intellectual property patent application country. 

On the other hand, Korea is currently classified as a developing country in terms of some top ten indexes, including 41st in people’s satisfaction index; 45th in integrity; second in annual labor hours worked; and the highest suicide rate. This indicates that Korea cannot rise to the ranks of an advanced country without improving the top 10 indexes belonging to developing countries. 

Whether the nation can rise to countries respected by other countries for their attractive things related to the sophisticated stature of the 21st century, rich with emotional values, depends on how much Korea can achieve in the cultural perspective. 

Accordingly, KOSHA strives to attach priority to educating on such welfare and life-related aspects as safety/health; the environment; and transportation safety. We plan to suggest alternatives to help people improve occupational safety and health. We strive to devote ourselves to going back to the basics and starting our work with a renewed mindset so an environment for improving integrity and awareness of safety can be fostered. 

In this regard, I was invited by Seoul National University, Sogang University and Joongang University last year to give a lecture on the subject titled “Safety and Audit Strategies” as part of efforts to spread an environment of improved safety and integrity in the wake of the sinking of the Sewol ferry. 

I got an ovation from public entity auditors when I delivered a keynote speech during the inaugural Assembly of the Public Entity Auditors’ Forum. A three-hour video on the topic was produced and distributed later. 

I’ve devoted myself to contributing to the development of the occupational safety and auditing fields, as my 35-year career with a conviction that God made humans omniscient (for integrity) and people responsible for safety (auditors) may be no longer necessary.

Now is time when all of us in Korea have to join forces in raising the nation to the ranks of an advanced country in a full-fledged fashion by working out superb strategies designed to upgrade our safety and integrity levels.

I want to express my hope that auditors, including myself, and officials in charge of occupational health and safety will spearhead the breaking of the mold with a renewed mindset and a strong mandate.

KOSHA President Lee Young-soon and Standing Auditor Yoon Yang-bae participate in a ceremony to declare a vision of being a “happiness partner” of workers and a premier entity specializing in the prevention of industrial accidents along with KOSHA executives and staff members at KOSHA headquarters in Ulsan on March 6. 2015.