Chiefs of Korea Coal Corp. and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety are expected to be removed from their posts by the government for their poor management, officials said Tuesday.

The two companies received the poorest grade of E on their 2012 management report cards by a team of 159 civilian experts evaluating 111 state-owned and quasi-state enterprises.

The Finance Ministry said Tuesday that 16 chiefs of state-run and quasi-state enterprises, including Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and Korea Investment Corp., got Ds for being “incapable of running their companies with mid-to-long term strategic visions.”

They received warnings by the government for insufficient management skills.

Korea’s state-run energy companies received “extremely poor” grades for inefficiently managing their businesses. Korea Hydro, Korea Coal and Korea National Oil Corp. scored Ds and Es.

The evaluation report noted that state-owned energy companies earned low grades as they generated steep losses overseas and failed to meet nuclear safety standards.

A total of 16 companies and quasi-state institutions, including the Korea Exchange, received Ds and Es.

Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp, a world-renowned airport operator, received the second-highest grade of A for efficiently managing its business and providing improved public services. None of the state-run enterprises got the highest grade of S.

The evaluation team also gave As to Korea Airports Corp, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and 13 others.

Korea has been grading its state and quasi-state enterprises since 1984 to evaluate their public business and service capabilities. President Park Geun-hye recently urged her ministers to apply tougher grading systems as a means to promote those with good scores while replacing ones with a lack of management professionalism.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)