Busan’s educational chief has been booked on charges of taking bribes from kindergarten operators, the city police announced Monday.

Lim Hea-kyung, superintendent of the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education, is suspected of receiving three items of clothing worth around 1.8 million won ($1,400) from two kindergarten operators in return for allowing the two preschools to extend their classes. 

The other two suspects were also booked. None of them were detained.

Under the current government system, the superintendent of education is responsible for overseeing the evaluation of private preschools in Busan and also has the right to give incentives to the institutions.

During the interrogation, which lasted for more than 14 hours, the 64-year-old Lim admitted she had accepted the clothes, but insisted that they were just gifts and not intended to be in return for any favors.

The police are now investigating whether she had received other bribes or offers before asking the prosecution to investigate the case this week.

Lim started to teach elementary school students in 1968 and previously served as supervisor and senior supervisor at the city education office before being elected superintendent in 2010.

She is the third incumbent regional educational chief to be accused of corruption in the last year, following Seoul’s Kwak No-hyun and South Jeolla Province’s Chang Man-chae.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)