Civil servants and state-run organizations are coming under close scrutiny as President Park Geun-hye seeks to tighten discipline and stamp out inappropriate conduct.

Three separate audits into the military, civil service and state-run companies will be in full swing by next week. The results are expected to affect possible reshuffles of top posts in the organizations.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security will conduct a government-wide audit on civil servants from March 18-April 23. More than 250 inspectors will be deployed to look for signs of misdemeanors and illegal activities ranging from bribery and embezzlement to ignoring or putting off processing complaints.

According to the ministry, customs that “do not meet public expectations” and discipline-related issues such as drinking during work hours and leaving work early will also be looked into.

Governments of regions on the border with North Korea and those that will be affected by the April 24 by-elections will be subjected to more stringent audit standards.

“Irregularities detected in the audit will be treated sternly regardless of the level of position (of the responsible persons). From here, efforts to establish discipline within the public sector will be sped up,” Minister of Safety and Public Administration Yoo Jeong-bok said on Wednesday.

While the Public Administration Ministry readies for its inspection, the Prime Minister’s Office is reported to have begun an extensive audit into executives of state-run organizations across the country on Monday, the same day the president hinted at the standards she would require of chiefs of such bodies.

“As there will be many personnel appointments for each ministry’s subordinate organizations and state-run bodies, efforts should be made to appoint people who can share the new government’s philosophy about state affairs,” Park said at Monday’s Cabinet meeting, saying that personnel appointments were vital to the execution of her administration’s plans.

In addition to showing Park’s preferences for state-run firms’ executives, the comment has also been widely interpreted as being aimed at the so-called parachute appointments made by former President Lee Myung-bak.

The Board of Audit and Inspection is also looking into the military following reports that high-level officers, including the top commanders of the Navy and the Air Force, were playing golf while Pyongyang threatened war over the weekend.

The Board of Audit and Inspection also announced the results of a month-long audit into the state-run Korea Development Bank, Export-Import Bank of Korea, Korea Exchange and other major state-run institutions conducted last year.

According to the audit board, the KDB, headed by former Finance Minister Kang Man-soo, sustained 24.4 billion won ($22.2 million) in losses as of September 2012, while the Eximbank was found to have either abolished or reduced the number of loan products reserved for small-to-mid sized exporters.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)