Gangwon Research Institute draws fire after falling to lowest management rating

The Gangwon Research Institute, tasked with providing evidence-based future strategies for Gangwon Province, came under withering criticism at the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Provincial Assembly's administrative audit Friday after its management rating fell to a D — the lowest possible grade.

The institute received consecutive C ratings in 2024 and 2025, then fell further this year to a D with a total score of 70.18 points. It was one of four institutions among the 17 provincial investment and grant-funded bodies evaluated this year to receive the bottom rating.

Lawmaker Yun Mi-gyeong said at the administrative audit Friday that "an institute meant to diagnose problems in provincial governance and chart a path forward cannot keep stumbling in its own management," adding that the continued decline after two consecutive C ratings raised serious questions about whether improvement measures had produced any real results.

Yun also called on the institute to provide a detailed breakdown of how audit-related deductions had affected its overall rating, and demanded that accountability be established for the cited shortcomings along with concrete measures to prevent recurrence. As a publicly funded research body operating on provincial grants, the institute must ensure both research expertise and organizational transparency and accountability, Yun said.

"Efforts must go beyond simply chasing a better rating," Yun said, urging the institute to set clear targets and deadlines for each improvement task and to monitor progress consistently. Yun also stressed that the institute must raise the policy impact of its research so that findings are actually reflected in provincial governance, and thereby restore its credibility as Gangwon Province's core research institution.

Lawmaker Park Yun-mi pressed the institute to provide verifiable evidence of compliance for six follow-up actions from a special audit that had been marked "completed" in its work report. Park asked how the institute had revised its rules on promotion restrictions for disciplined employees and its personnel evaluation procedures, and how far it had gone in preventing recurrence. Park then demanded that the revised personnel management regulations and item-by-item compliance records be submitted to the relevant standing committee. In response, the institute's director said the entries had been marked complete to indicate that the regulatory overhaul was finished, and pledged to submit the relevant materials.

Park called on the institute to fix a structural problem in which a single person handles both general affairs and audit duties — an arrangement that allows someone to review their own work. The director said the institute had been in talks with the province about establishing a dedicated audit office but had not yet carried out the reorganization.

Park warned that repeated internal conflicts would erode public trust and make it harder to focus on policy research, urging the director to take personal responsibility for improving internal communication and organizational management. Park also called on the institute to refocus on its core mission of developing policies that advance Gangwon's development and improve residents' lives.

Lawmaker Kim Se-jong said that while problems can arise in any organization, what matters is how quickly they are identified and resolved to restore organizational health. "This should be a turning point — the institute must draw up a sweeping reform plan to overhaul its organizational culture," Kim said.

Kim reviewed the institute's 2026 reorganization plan and called for prompt action to secure the independence of its audit function.

"Having the audit function bundled with general affairs work is incompatible with the standing an audit body should have," Kim said, noting that the same issue had been flagged at the 2024 administrative audit and remained unaddressed two years on. "The reorganization cannot be delayed any further," Kim said.

With Park and other lawmakers raising the same concerns, a major structural overhaul of the Gangwon Research Institute now appears unavoidable.