Korea Electric Power Corp. and SR were among 22 public agencies rated “insufficient” or worse in a customer satisfaction survey for last year. The government said it will require the agencies to analyze the causes of weak service and draw up specific improvement plans.
The Finance and Economy Ministry on Tuesday released results of its “2025 public-agency customer satisfaction survey” covering 186 public institutions. The overall composite score was 89.2, up 1.3 points from 87.9 a year earlier. By type, quasi-government agencies scored highest at 91.4, followed by state-run enterprises at 89.2 and other public institutions at 88.1.
The government said broader customer-tailored service channels and more active efforts to address complaints helped lift satisfaction overall.
The survey also replaced the previous three-tier system (excellent, average, insufficient) with five grades: very excellent, excellent, average, insufficient and very insufficient. Under the new scale, 77 agencies — 41.4% of the total — were rated “excellent” or higher. Twenty-two agencies, or 11.8%, were rated “insufficient” or below, down 12.9 percentage points from the previous year.
Among state-run enterprises, Korea Electric Power was rated “insufficient,” while SR was rated “very insufficient.” In the quasi-government category, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, the Small Enterprise and Market Service, and the Korea Internet & Security Agency were rated “insufficient.”
In the other public-institution category, Public Home Shopping, the Korea Legal Aid Corp., the Independence Hall of Korea, the Korea Creative Content Agency, and the Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute were rated “insufficient” or below.
Twelve agencies were rated “very excellent.” In the state-run enterprise group, the Jeju Free International City Development Center, Korea Gas Corp., the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corp., and Korea Water Resources Corp. made the list. In the quasi-government group, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation, and the Korea Environment Corp. were included.
Forty agencies, including the Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corp. (LX), maintained an “excellent” or higher rating for at least two consecutive years. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and the Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation were selected as excellent agencies for a seventh straight year.
The ministry said it also tightened rules to improve fairness and credibility. To better reflect differences in agency operations, it introduced target scores across 13 detailed categories linked to management evaluation standards. For agencies found to have engaged in misconduct during the survey, it said they must adopt measures to prevent recurrence and will be barred for two years from participating in the survey as contractors, among other steps.
The results will be reflected in the 2025 management performance evaluation of public agencies and will be disclosed through the public agency management information system, ALIO. Starting next year, the government plans to fully apply a next-generation evaluation index, the “PCSI 3.0 model,” designed for a digital administrative environment.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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