[2020 National Audit] 17 Public Institutions Including KEPCO Suspected of Ignoring the '4th Industrial Revolution' and Traveling to the US

Lee Jang-seop "17 Public Institutions' Standing Auditors and Audit Offices, 4 Nights 5 Days Extravagant Overseas Trip to San Francisco"
"4 Days of Cultural Exploration out of 5, 9 Standing Auditors Used 6 Million Won Business Class"
"Eradicate Extravagant Overseas Training Practices of Public Institutions Funded by Taxpayers"

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Allegations have been raised that the standing auditors and audit offices of 17 public institutions, including Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), went on a pleasure trip to San Francisco, USA.

On the 22nd, Lee Jang-seop, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed out that an analysis of data submitted by 17 public institutions revealed suspicions that the overseas training titled '4th Industrial Revolution Innovation Power Benchmarking' conducted in December last year was actually a 'pleasure trip'.

Lee stated that on December 2nd last year, about 30 employees belonging to the standing auditors and audit offices of 17 public institutions, including KEPCO and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, departed for a 5-night, 7-day training schedule in San Francisco, USA.

The training, organized by the Korea Public Institution Audit Association, was intended to explore innovation plans for public institutions through on-site visits to Silicon Valley.

However, according to Lee, the first itinerary included visits to San Francisco's representative tourist spots such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito.

For four out of the five days, under the name of 'local cultural experience,' the itinerary consisted of pleasure trip destinations.

The last schedule before returning home was Napa Valley, a famous wine-producing region in California.

The average training cost per participant was 9.02 million KRW, totaling approximately 330 million KRW.

Nine standing auditors used business class seats costing about 6 million KRW during travel.

All expenses were paid by the respective institutions. They used business class seats and consumed wine with taxpayers' money.

The distributed educational materials were hastily compiled, simply copying related articles or pasting homepage introductions for each visited institution.

Upon obtaining and analyzing the result reports from each institution, Lee found that all reports except one contained identical content. Many reports were either not submitted or only listed schedules without any activity details.

Lee said, "The practice of overseas training for public institutions funded by taxpayers' money turning into pleasure trips unrelated to their purpose must be eradicated," and urged the relevant institutions to implement measures to prevent recurrence.