Concerns Over Large-Scale Year-End Budget Surplus Due to COVID-19 Business Execution Slump
2021 Budget Proposal Remains at Usual Level... No COVID-19 Response Strategy
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Lee Byung-hoon, a member of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee (Gwangju Dong-gu Nam-gu Eul), revealed on the 27th that the actual execution rate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s national treasury subsidies in the first half of 2020 was only 20%.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which executed national treasury subsidies amounting to 4.3511 trillion KRW in 2020, had disbursed a total of 2.7454 trillion KRW as of July 2020, showing a disbursement rate of 63.1%. However, the actual amount executed was 911.7 billion KRW, meaning the actual execution rate for the first half of 2020 (January to June) was only 20.9%, barely exceeding one-fifth of the budget amount.
This execution rate ranks 15th among 18 ministries, and excluding eight ministries that disburse less than 1 trillion KRW in national treasury subsidies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Unification, it is the lowest among 10 ministries. Even when narrowing the scope to ‘management target projects,’ excluding budget items such as personnel expenses and basic expenses that are evenly executed monthly, the actual execution rate was only 32%.
The low actual execution rate indicates that the national treasury subsidies disbursed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism are not being properly utilized on the ground. Due to COVID-19 in the first half of this year, various projects, performances, and events in the culture, arts, and tourism sectors were canceled or postponed, resulting in the government’s disbursed subsidies hardly being executed.
Assemblyman Lee Byung-hoon pointed out, “There is concern that most projects are unable to use their budgets due to difficulties in project execution caused by COVID-19,” and added, “Since this is a special situation caused by COVID-19, it is necessary to encourage project execution by providing guidelines and instructions to allow flexible budget management within the discretion of the responsible minister.”
Under the current National Finance Act, budget reallocation is possible with the approval of the Minister of Strategy and Finance when used for disaster countermeasure funds, etc.
Meanwhile, it was found that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism prepared the 2021 budget at the usual level without any preparation for the prolonged COVID-19 situation.
Among the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s 2021 budget proposals, the budget for COVID-19 response non-face-to-face projects increased only by 61.2 billion KRW from 74.7 billion KRW in 2020 to 135.9 billion KRW in 2021. Moreover, this increase is concentrated in infrastructure construction with questionable effectiveness, limited to certain sectors such as ‘Online immersive K-pop performance support (29 billion KRW)’ and ‘Smart museum and art gallery construction support (8.2 billion KRW),’ which is insufficient to alleviate the overall industry’s thirst.
Assemblyman Lee Byung-hoon stated, “During the 2021 budget review process, we will prepare measures to minimize damage in the culture, sports, and tourism sectors under infectious disease environments like COVID-19 by changing project directions and discovering alternative projects.”
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