225 Cases of National Budget Waste Detected: Expensive Tiles and Unfair Subsidies in Breakwater Construction

Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Conducts Inspection of Port Construction and Fisheries Resource Projects

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Numerous cases of national budget waste have been uncovered, including the use of expensive tiles for breakwater construction and improper payment of fuel subsidies for cargo ships.

The Government Joint Corruption Prevention Task Force under the Office for Government Policy Coordination announced on the 15th that it identified 225 issues related to construction contracts, appraisals, and safety management after inspecting nationwide port construction and fishery resource support projects funded by national budgets and subsidies. The task force inspected 485 project sites in Busan, Incheon, and Jeonnam regions, where more than 10 billion KRW of public funds were supported from June to December last year, and disclosed the results on this day.

By type of violation, there were 181 cases of improper port and fishing harbor construction and contracts. Many cases involved using unnecessarily expensive materials when paving roads inside ports or constructing breakwaters along the coast. Several cases were found where breakwater restoration work damaged by typhoons repeatedly failed because the previous standards, set based on low wave heights without reviewing wave height changes, were applied as is.

There were 33 cases of improper execution of fuel subsidies for cargo ships and poor management of tax-exempt fuel for fishing, and 7 cases of improper procedures and appraisals in the fishing vessel reduction project. In the fishing vessel reduction project, support payments were made without conducting on-site inspections of vessels or fishing gear, and budget was wasted by failing to review the potential revenue from scrap metal or engines generated during vessel dismantling.

Additionally, there were 4 cases of improper marine environment and safety management.

The Corruption Prevention Task Force took measures such as requesting disciplinary action (reprimands) for local governments or project managers pointed out for improper subsidy execution and management (8 cases), and issuing institutional warnings and correction demands (66 cases). It also recovered 48.96 million KRW of national subsidies and budgets that were used improperly for safety management purposes, and referred five companies that submitted false tax invoices related to safety management expenses for investigation on fraud charges.

It was also announced that 4.6 billion KRW was saved through design changes in projects with potential budget waste.