The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced Tuesday that it would conduct a special audit on the Korea Foundation for Human Tissue Donation (KFTD) regarding the allegations of its corruption and irregular operations.

KFTD has recently come under fire on counts of corruption, topped with an executive director comparing employees to “butchers,” during a training session Monday.

According to a report, the executive told its employees during a training session that they “were no different from butchers” and their job was to produce “things.”

The executive director reportedly receives a “large” monthly salary of 6.25 million won ($5,580) as the de facto operator of the foundation, although he claims the title of a “contract head” – a position that had not existed at the foundation, according to Rep. Jeong Choun-sook of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea during the parliament’s audit of the ministry.

The tissue bank is the only official nonprofit organization that handles human tissue donation under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. It is responsible for collecting and distributing donation of tissues such as bone, cartilage, skin, tendons or the eyes. The tissue donations are given to those who suffer from genetic diseases or injuries such as burns, bone fractures, bone cancer, and visual impairment

■ Related : Tissue donation remains alien concept for many Koreans

The problems of the foundation were brought to light by Rep. Jeong, who received reports on its “abnormal and illegal” activities from the ministry.

"The foundation allegedly deleted various records and data kept on the server of its previous and current headquarters after several lawmakers requested data from the organization last month,” Rep. Jeong said. She also pointed out that Kim Gi-chun, chief of staff for ousted former President Park Geun-hye, had served as one of the foundation’s directors since its establishment in 2008.

Kim Gi-chun is also charged with spearheading the creation of a blacklist of left-leaning cultural figures critical of Park and notorious for being pulling strings in the Blue House.

The tissue bank had a long and twisted history of illegal conduct, Rep. Jeong noted. In 2006, an employee was found guilty of accepting tens of millions of won for organ trafficking. The employee was sentenced to one year in prison and two years of probation. But recent reports uncovered that the employee is currently working at the foundation – going against hiring regulations that ban rehiring employees before at least three years pass since the completion of a prison sentence, according to Jeong.

KFTD had also faced public scrutiny for handing out 275 million won to a currently closed tissue bank as part of a research contract. Follow-up reports showed the deal produced zero meaningful results. Even though the tissue bank shut down in July 2014, it had continued to claim payments from the research contract until the end of last year, the lawmaker said.

“There were suspicions as to why this institution, which only had three members in January 2013, was selected to receive tax subsidies, including even payroll costs, and how the government began funding this institution,” Rep Jeong said.

The institution was launched with the government’s financial support of 250 million won in 2008, and the funding increased to 1 billion won in 2009, and 3.5 billion won in 2010, Jeong noted.

“The Board of Audit and Inspection and the prosecution must get to the bottom of its corruption and fix the organization fundamentally,” she said. “Who will want to donate their or their family member’s bodies to the foundation – a noble act that has the potential to save human lives – without reforming the foundation?”

The story, first reported by one of the nation’s leading cable networks, JTBC, has prompted the ministry to order a special audit of the tissue foundation Tuesday, with the ministry issuing a strong statement of the upcoming probe.

“It makes no sense that the organization head has been appointed without my knowledge. The right to appoint the head of the KFTD lies with the minister of health and welfare, and I have not yet done so,” said Minister Park Neung-hoo. “We will carry out a special audit to uncover all illegal acts.”