The Sewol ferry disaster in April raised public awareness of the importance of reforming the civil service. A key element in the reforms is shutting down the system of revolving-door appointments, in which retired civil servants move to private-sector jobs related to their previous duties.

Equally important in reforming the civil service is to bring in qualified personnel from outside the government. In fact, there are several schemes aimed at expanding personnel input from the private sector and facilitating staff exchanges among government ministries.

Some of these programs, however, remain only in name, as was found by a report released by Rep. Lee Cheol-woo of the Saenuri Party.

Under one of the programs, called the system for “senior civil service open positions,” each ministry offers a certain number of senior posts to those from other ministries or the civilian sector. It is designed to bring in outside expertise and break down the walls separating government ministries.

The way the system is operated is alarming. Rep. Lee’s report showed that a survey of 166 such posts at the end of last year found that 100, or 60.2 percent, were filled by staff within their respective ministries.

Only 23 posts went to public servants from outside ministries and 31 to people from the private sector.

Even worse is that not a single outside figure occupied one of the open posts at four agencies ― the Unification Ministry, the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry, the Food and Drug Safety Ministry and Statistics Korea. They may as well drop the posts from the “open positions” list.

Besides the open positions, 96 posts at government ministries have been opened up to competitive recruitment among government employees. Here again, 57, or 59.3 percent, of the available posts were filled by staff from the respective agencies. Only 27 posts went to applicants from outside ministries. All four posts at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and five of six posts at the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry went to internal staff.

Lack of job security and lower pay than in the private sector may be behind the flawed operation of the systems. But the latest report shows that many civil servants are still bent on protecting their own collective interests. Reforming the public service is a far-off dream if each government ministry remains an exclusive club.