Audit finds civic groups widely misuse taxpayer money

Social Affairs

Published: 04 Jun. 2023, 18:04 Updated: 04 Jun. 2023, 18:31

Audit finds civic groups widely misuse taxpayer money

Lee Kwan-sup, the president’s senior secretary of state affairs planning, announces the latest finding on misused government subsidies handed to civic organization during a press briefing at the Yongsan presidential office on Sunday. [YONHAP]

The government has found 1,865 cases of corruption committed by civic organizations misusing funds composed of taxpayer money over the last three years.

Some 31.4 billion won ($24 million) of the civic organizations' total project value of 1.1 trillion won were misappropriated.

This includes embezzlement, false claims, using funds for personal purposes, insider trading and falsifying documents.

The findings were the result of an investigation conducted by the government led by the Office for Government Policy Coordination between January and April.

The government audited 12,000 civic organizations that received a total of 6.8 trillion won of funding from 29 government departments over the last three years.

One organization promoting Korean unification received 626 billion won from the government for "discovering buried national heroes." However, the government's audit found that the organization held unrelated campaigns, including lectures on bringing down the Yoon Suk Yeol government.

The lecturer, who didn't even write the lectures he gave, was paid triple the maximum amount.

The government plans to refer the case to investigative institutions.

A secretary general of one organization filed a false report on overseas business trips. The unnamed official pocketed 13.4 million won in government subsidies on two overseas trips that were actually personal in nature, and one falsely reported trip in which he never even left the country, disguising them as trips to strengthen overseas cooperation.

The person also received 19.4 million won for a book project that didn't happen.

The government plans to file a criminal complaint.

In another case, several employees of a civic organization promoting national unification spent 18 million won in government subsidies buying booze and paying for entertainment instead of supporting families separated by the Korean War, as it claimed to be doing.

"The government plans to take stern actions including recovering the subsidies that were given to these projects as well as requesting an investigation and even a criminal complaint," Lee Kwan-sup, the president's senior secretary of state affairs planning, said Sunday during a press briefing.

"Next year, we plan to cut at least 500 billion won in subsidies provided to civic organizations in order to cut off corruption at its sources," Lee added.

That's roughly 30 percent of the increase in subsidies over the last five years.

"Over the last five years under the previous [Moon Jae-in] government, government subsidies [to civic organizations] increased more than 2 trillion won," Lee said.

He also said the government will set up a system to improve transparency on the use of the funds that civic groups have received, including paper receipts.

The government plans to tighten regulations even through reform legislation, including a bill requiring civic groups that receive more than 100 million won to receive external verification of their settlement report.

Civic groups currently must receive such verification if they receive more than 300 million won.

Additionally, civic organizations annually audited by the government will be broadened to include ones that receive at least 300 million won, down from the existing 1 billion won.

Lee said the moves aim to not only increase transparency but also to improve the efficiency of the spending.

Yoon started a crackdown on government grants to civic organizations in December last year after auditing labor unions, which received subsidies from the government but never disclosed their spending.

At a Cabinet meeting that month, Yoon said the government needs to closely look into whether funds paid by the public have gone to waste or been used for purposes other than the organization's actual work.

Yoon stressed the importance of public money meant to serve the public interest.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]