Prosecutors have summoned Jang Ha-sung, former presidential chief of staff for policy during the Moon Jae-in administration, as a suspect for questioning regarding the Moon government's alleged fabrication of key data on housing prices, income and employment.

The Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office on Thursday began grilling Jang on charges of power abuse, obstructing the exercise of rights, and violation of the statistics law.

The prosecution launched the probe after the Board of Audit and Inspection(BAI) requested an investigation into 22 officials from the Moon government, including all four former presidential chiefs of staff for policy and former land minister Kim Hyun-mi.

Based on the preliminary outcome of its six-month probe, the state auditor said the previous administration had ordered the Korea Real Estate Board(REB), an affiliate of the land ministry, to manipulate data at least 94 times between 2017 and 2021.

The BAI suspected that the administration unlawfully ordered the REB to report on the tentative housing price data from Seoul starting June of 2017. Providing statistical data to another government institution or agency is a violation of the statistics law.

Former land minister Kim was summoned as a suspect for questioning on Tuesday.