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Culture Ministry finds Korea Film Council mishandled budget

Published: 15 Jun. 2023, 13:53 Updated: 15 Jun. 2023, 16:14

[KOREAN FILM COUNCIL]

The Korean Film Council (Kofic) has mismanaged its budget and carried out unfair methods in selecting candidates for support programs, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism found.

The ministry said Thursday that Kofic, which spent 2.4 billion won ($1.87 million) in the past five years, had spent the funds "recklessly" and had been unfair in selecting recipients of support programs by Kofic.

The ministry cited the Korea-Asean Film Organization Establishment and Operation Project as the most problematic case. Kofic had allocated a budget of 6.9 billion won for five years from 2019 for the establishment of a Korea-Asean Film Organization but has so far failed to reach an agreement with Asean countries, and the establishment of an organization has virtually collapsed.

It also pointed out that the belated reduction of the workforce at the Chinese office of Kofic was another example of lax management. Although the role of the Chinese office was reduced as Korean films were not released and distributed due to restrictions on Korean works during the Covid-19 pandemic, Kofic had not reduced the number of employees at the office, the ministry said.

In addition, the ministry confirmed that in last year's support program for the operation of exclusive theaters for independent films, budgets were provided to theaters that did not meet the application qualifications, posing a fairness issue.

The professionalism and qualifications of those employed by Kofic as judges for support programs are also below par compared to other content-related organizations, according to the ministry.

The film production support project of Kofic has a budget of over 10 billion won annually, but the actual execution rate for the past three years has only been in the 30 to 40 percent range, it added.

As the Korean film industry is in crisis due to the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the change in the video content industry environment following the breakthrough of streaming services, the ministry ordered intensive restructuring and innovation of Kofic.

It also plans to lay out the groundwork for supporting the film industry to take off again by streamlining expenditures and improving the system of operations of Kofic.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]