SEOUL - SAMSUNG unveiled measures on Wednesday to bring more transparency to its management structure following a scandal that led to the resignation of its chairman, but critics said the reform did not go far enough.

In April, Chairman Lee Kun Hee stepped down after 20 years as chief of South Korea's biggest conglomerate in the aftermath of his indictment on tax evasion and other charges. The charges followed high-profile special prosecutors' probe into the conglomerate.

Samsung said it will eliminate its Strategic Planning Office, a key body that coordinates Samsung's companies. The elimination will be completed on Monday, Samsung said in a statement.

The office has long been a lightning rod for critics of Samsung's management structure.

'The office served as a 'control tower' of Samsung without assuming legal responsibility,' Prof Kim Sang Jo, an economic professor at Seoul's Hansung University, said.

Samsung also said it will create two committees under the consultative body of chief executives to 'prevent management chaos and for speedy decision-making of the group'.

Samsung has interests in dozens of businesses including electronics, shipbuilding and construction. Its companies account for up to 20 per cent of South Korea's exports, by some estimates.

Samsung Electronics, its flagship corporation, is a world leader in computer chips, flat-screen TVs and mobile phones.

The Solidarity for Economic Reform, a leading civic watchdog led by Prof Kim, dismissed the announcement as a temporary management scheme to prepare the transfer of Samsung's control to Mr Lee Jae Yong, the former chairman's son and heir who is an executive at Samsung Electronics.

The announcement 'is nothing but an unstable and transitional structure that will cost synergy effects of group management for personal interests' of Mr Lee's family, the watchdog said in a statement posted on its website.

Shares in Samsung Electronics fell 0.6 per cent to 655,000 won (S$855) while shares in some other group companies gained. -- AP