President Lee Myung-bak on Monday stressed he would root out the widespread practice among government officials and judges of giving favors to their retired colleagues.

The “jeon-gwan-ye-woo” practice, which means giving “honorable treatment to former officials,” refers to the custom of private companies offering high-paying jobs to retired senior government officials in exchange for their connections.

“This practice is rampant not only in financial supervisory organizations, but also in other sectors of society, ranging from the judiciary, tax office and national defense to the civil service,” Lee said in his biweekly radio address.

“Without eliminating such practices, however, we will not be able to move toward becoming a leading, advanced country.”

Lee made the remarks as the prosecution is speeding up its investigation into a major corruption scandal surrounding now-suspended mutual savings banks. Dozens of top government officials and senior politicians have been implicated in the illegal lobbying allegations.

Calls for ending the practice have mounted sincerevelations that ex-financial regulators sought to help troubled savings banks avoid sanctions for irregularities.

“The general public sees the corruption of elected public officials and high-ranking government officials as most problematic. In this regard, the government will rigorously revise the Public Service Ethics Act,” Lee said.

Noting that public officials’ career experience and capabilities are public assets, Lee said he could not hold back anger at the series of corruption cases that resulted from the decades-long practice.

“Because the professional knowledge and experience that (a public official) has accumulated from his public service are not his own, so he must return them to the country and society upon retirement,” Lee said.

“I believe that a public official’s career experience and skills are a sort of public asset.”

The financial scandal has dealt a blow to Lee’s campaign to create a “fair society.” The scandal is quickly turning into a political one with some observers predicting that certain high-profile politicians may be at the end of the illegal lobbying chain ahead of the parliamentary and presidential elections next year.

The corruption scandal centers on savings banks which sought the influence of high-level politicians and senior officials with bribes in an attempt to avoid punishment for extending illegal loans and a string of other irregularities.

Making a society fairer takes greater priority than making the country richer, Lee said.

“It is my belief that a low-income, fair society would make people happier than a high-income, unfair society,” he said.

“In light of this, we must eradicate corruption and irregularities even if it causes unbearable pain in the bones. What is happening in our society makes me extremely indignant. But we must go through this pain for our future generations.”

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)