The National Assembly's science and ICT committee has called the head of SK Group and the founders of Kakao Corporation and Naver Corporation as audit witnesses regarding service malfunctions that followed a fire at a data center over the weekend.

The panel on Monday agreed to call SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Kakao founder Kim Beom-su, Naver Global Investment Officer(GIO) Lee Hae-jin and three others to an audit session scheduled for October 24.

The committee is expected to grill the Kakao and Naver founders on what caused the service malfunctions and on future preventive steps.

It will likely hold Chey responsible for mismanagement of the SK C&C building that houses the data center where the fire broke out on Saturday.

Rival political parties had earlier clashed over whether to summon the Kakao founder as a witness. The ruling People Power Party called for a working executive from the tech giant, while the main opposition Democratic Party called for Kim to be questioned on the firm's overall management.