The National Assembly's Finance and Economic Planning Committee agreed on the 28th to summon six witnesses and four expert participants for its parliamentary audit of government agencies, including Kim Beom-seok, chief executive of Woowa Brothers, which operates the food delivery app Baedal Minjok, and Google Korea head Yoon Goo.
Lawmakers plan to focus their questions to Kim on fund transfers among the company's overseas affiliates and on whether corporate taxes and withholding taxes were properly handled. Yoon will face questions over allegations that Google Korea avoided corporate taxes and evaded taxes. The committee also named SK Energy Chief Executive Kim Jong-hwa as a witness to examine losses and compensation for refiners under the oil price ceiling system.
Kim Yong-beom, former chief of the presidential policy office, and Yeo Han-koo, former trade negotiations chief, whom the People Power Party had sought to summon, were left off the list because of opposition from the Democratic Party. The People Power Party protested that "key witnesses were dropped," while the Democratic Party countered that many of the requests fell under the jurisdiction of other standing committees. The committee plans to vote on a second list of witnesses and expert participants after further consultations.
