Yeongam-gun Suspends All Officials Who Attended Golf Gathering

Complete Testing of Public Officials Conducted, All Tested Negative

Yeongam-gun Office Building Exterior (Photo by Yeongam-gun)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Yeongam-gun, Jeollanam-do announced on the 13th that although 71 people who had contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases were subject to specimen collection according to quarantine guidelines, all public officials were tested considering the lives and safety of the residents, and all tested negative.

Additionally, on the 10th, the county office and eup/myeon offices resumed work, and on the 13th, five public officials were urgently assigned to the Geumjeong-myeon office to minimize work gaps, completing the first stage of response.

Meanwhile, as a second-stage measure, all seven public officials who attended the golf meeting were subject to personnel action effective on the 14th.

Yeongam-gun dismissed all of them from their positions to hold them strictly accountable for damaging the honor of residents and public officials, causing administrative distrust, and tarnishing the dignity of public officials.

They had a golf meeting on the 4th, and one of them was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on the 8th.

With COVID-19 still ongoing and especially the rapid surge in the Gwangju and Jeonnam areas, this strong action against some public officials who caused significant social disturbance served as a warning to the public service community.

Jeon Dong-pyeong, Yeongam County Governor, expressed regret in an apology released on the 10th, saying, “I apologize for causing great concern to the residents due to the careless awareness and inconsiderate actions of some public officials regarding COVID-19 during this serious situation where the virus is rapidly spreading in the Gwangju and Jeonnam areas,” and promised swift personnel measures.

The governor added, “We will thoroughly establish public service discipline to prevent such unfortunate incidents from happening again,” emphasizing, “As a subsequent COVID-19 response measure, we will distribute additional masks to all public officials for reserve use and provide masks to visitors to county administrative offices who are not wearing masks, making every effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the safety of residents.”